Starting Monday, Jan. 2, 2017, City residents should begin using the new wheeled 95-gallon garbage carts that were delivered to their homes in December.

Throughout December, crews have delivered close to 60,000 new garbage carts to all Knoxville households at no additional expense to the homeowners. A small number of carts will be delivered today and into next week, so any homeowners who haven’t received their cart by next week’s trash pickup should use their existing trash containers.

If homeowners still haven’t received a new garbage cart by Friday, Jan. 6, they should please call 311 to make arrangements.

The new standardized carts are a key component in modernizing the City’s household garbage collection – upgrades that will save City taxpayers $2 million each year. The carts allow the City’s contractor, Waste Connections, to utilize trucks designed to hoist the receptacles and dump the trash into the back of their garbage trucks, which cuts down on workers’ injuries and improves the quality of work for garbage collectors.

On or after Jan. 2, residents should be using the new carts. But otherwise, trash pickup won’t change: The day of garbage pickup in each neighborhood will stay the same, and residents should continue to take the cart to their usual collection location, with the handle toward the residence.

Because garbage trucks will be hoisting the carts and mechanically dumping the trash, the carts must be placed away from vehicles, utility poles or other items that might restrict the garbage truck mechanism from picking up the cart. The carts also must not block traffic, mail service or sidewalks.

For more details about the new trash carts, call the City’s 311 Call Center or visit www.knoxvilletn.gov/garbage.