COMMENTARY

MILT THOMAS

The once civilized and predictable world of trash collection has suddenly deteriorated into incompetence of Third World proportions. We’re only talking about the unincorporated Indian River County (and Fellsmere) version of trash collection. Sebastian and Vero Beach are doing just fine, thank you. No complaints. Good service, predictable and highly civilized.

In a move presented as a cost cutting measure on behalf of taxpayers and homeowners alike, the county announced earlier this year a reduction in the fee for garbage and recycling collection, a savings to the average customer of about 35%. Great, except it also meant a 50% reduction in the number of trash pickups per week, from two down to one.  City of Vero Beach residents still enjoy twice a week (side yard) trash pickup and residents are delighted with it. Whereas residents of unincorporated Indian River County are wildly fed up with service so far under the new system.

Besides reducing the cost of trash pickup, another ‘advantage’ of the new Waste Management county service is that it is ‘voluntary,’ for a subscription of $9.68 per month. As the county website puts it, “Residential Curbside Garbage collection is not mandatory in Indian River County although it is within the Vero Beach City Limits.” Okay, it’s voluntary, but the alternative is that residents can carry their trash to the county landfill and dispose of it themselves. City of Vero Beach residents are required to put their trash out for the city to pick it up and don’t have that handy alternative of taking it to the dump. So far, no city residents have lined up at City Council meetings to protest required trash pick up. (Ironically, the county tried to convince Vero Beach officials to give up its efficient and popular service in favor of the countywide Waste Management system.)

The biggest problem with the new Waste Management service though is the apparent lack of any ‘Management.’ For instance, in my neighborhood Tuesday is now the designated day for both trash and recycling, as well as yard waste. Unfortunately, like many customers countywide, we didn’t have the new containers by the October 1 start date, or for a few weeks after that, so we had to stay on the prior pickup schedule using our old trash and recycling containers. But some people did not have their trash picked up then either. When we finally received our shiny, new plastic containers, everyone put them out on the designated day, but they weren’t picked up. So we just left our containers at the end of our driveways assuming someone would pick them up at some point.  Fortunately, it was collected the next day.

We were also instructed to place our old plastic recycling containers next to the new ones on the first collection day and they would be picked up. They weren’t. So now I have three of the old recycle bins, two old trash cans and the huge new containers in my garage, which has become an obstacle course. Many of my neighbors have to park their cars in the driveway or on the street since they have no room in their garages. It looks like we are a short term rental development.

Now, in defense of the county efforts, this single stream recycling is great – throw everything recyclable in one container. It seems to mean everything but pizza crusts and fish bones can be recycled. In fact, if you want to really reduce your carbon footprint, why not simply compost your organic trash and you won’t even need the huge 96-gallon trash containers that take up half the garage. Seriously, in my neighborhood we really only need one of those containers per street. As an alternative, I recommend doing your part to help solve the international refugee problem like I did. I have rented out my 96-gallon container to a nice Syrian family as temporary housing.