New garbage and recycling schedules are in effect as of Thursday, July 1. A & L, a local hauling company, has the contracts for picking up both the regular garbage and the recycling.
The Department of Public Works developed a new schedule in response to problems that cropped up under the old one. During the contracts that just ended, separate companies had responsibility for the garbage and the recycling. Under the previous schedule, garbage and recycling were often next to each other, or, worse, they were mixed in with each other. This created confusion for the sanitation workers, who could not be sure who was supposed to pick up what. As a result, sometimes they bypassed items that were left out for pickup.
The new schedule tries to address the garbage vs. recycling problem by having them picked up at different times. Garbage will be collected at night. Recycling will be collected by day.
Another problem that existed under the old schedule was allowing bulky items to be picked up at the same time as regular household garbage. Bulky items, such as couches, took up a lot of space on garbage trucks even when they were compacted. If a garbage truck picked up three couches, for example, that meant sometimes that it had no space left for garbage bags. Once a truck was full, it had to be pulled out of its rounds, so that it could go to Newark to be emptied out. Once that job was done, it was sometimes too late for the truck to resume its rounds in Bayonne. As a result, uncollected garbage remained on the streets. We hope the new system will prevent this problem.
The new schedule attempts to address the bulky garbage issue by allowing no bulky garbage pick-ups during the regular garbage collections. Going forward, bulky items will be picked up by special arrangement on the second and third Saturdays of each month. Please reserve a bulk pick-up in advance by calling 201-858-6123.
Cans and bottles can be set out in plastic recycling bags. When cans and bottles were left out in barrels, they ended up sometimes on the pavement instead of in the trucks. The tied recycling bags have been a neater solution. You can find clear or blue recycling bags in local grocery stores.
Thank you for your patience as we all get used to the new garbage and recycling schedules.
