Now that everyone has their new wheeled garbage cart, lots of residents have told us they'd like help in getting rid of their old trash receptacles. So this month, Waste Connections has started hauling them away.
If residents will place their old EMPTY trash cans next to their new City of Knoxville wheeled garbage cart on their scheduled trash day, Waste Connections will remove the old cans as crews collect your trash.
But if you don't want the trash pickup teams to dispose of your old receptacle, please don't place it anywhere near the new cart on collection day. In fact, if you'd like to keep your old trash receptacle, it'd be best to leave it in your garage or carport, just to avoid confusion.
By the way, we encourage everyone to keep their old carts and repurpose them as compost bins or rain barrels. That's your most environmentally-friendly option. For some helpful tips on how to do that, click HERE.
One other unrelated note: Going to a citywide system that uses standardized trash receptacles increases the efficiency, safety, health and aesthetic aspects of residential garbage collection. That translates into a nearly $2 million-a-year savings to taxpayers on garbage collection. 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. This significantly cuts down on injuries and improves the quality of work for garbage collectors.
However, for the collections to be done efficiently, it's mandatory that residents put their trash in bags and place the bags inside the garbage cart, with the lid closed. That helps the garbage collectors, and it avoids the mess of wild animals ripping open loose bags of trash.