After Bradford City Council amended an ordinance requiring yard waste to be placed in clear plastic bags for safe pick-up and disposal by city workers, residents are catching on and complying.
“There has been a little confusion, but for the most part people are complying and we’ve been getting them picked up by the truck loads every day,” Bradford City Director of Public Works Chip Comilla told The Era Thursday.
At its May meeting, city council gave final approval to amendments to the city’s solid waste and recycling ordinances. Yard waste put out by city residents for pick-up must now be put in clear plastic bags.
As of Monday, a two-week grace period to purchase clear plastic bags was up, according to Councilman Brad Mangel, who noted that Bisett Building Center and Worth W. Smith Co. have both indicated they will be keeping them in stock.
Mangel explained at a meeting on May 13 that the clear bags were becoming mandatory for safety reasons, as the Department of Public Works (DPW) has to empty each of the bags containing yard waste by hand into the city’s compost area.
For years DPW workers had been finding dog and cat feces, glass, garbage and other hazardous materials in yard waste bags, putting workers at risk, he said.
Mangel said on May 27 that the ordinance was also amended to include grass clippings into the legal definition of yard waste. This means that the city will pick up leaves, garden residues, shrubbery, tree trimmings and grass clippings to be composted.
Comilla said a few residents have put out yard waste in black bags, which were tagged to notify them that they wouldn’t be taken.
“We leave them and the resident re-bags them in a clear bag, and then they are picked up later. If they call that day, we have swung back around because we were in the neighborhood picking up bags anyway,” he said. “But, if they don’t catch us in time, then the following week we’ll pick them up.”
According to Comilla, there hasn’t been a big issue of noncompliance with the newly amended ordinance, and most residents in all city neighborhoods have switched to clear bags.
“The people who didn’t realize the change, they’re finding out,” he said. “It’s a learning curve and we expected this. When there is change, there’s always a bit of an adjustment period.”
There is no fine or fee associated with noncompliance, but bags of yard waste that aren’t in the clear bags simply are not picked up, Comilla said. “I guess that’s the penalty.
“We needed the change because (DPW workers) can see if there is garbage in the bags or other items — we can visually check in the bags before we pick them up,” he said. “We’re not taking garbage where we dump our yard waste.
“We do provide an area for residents to dump their own yard waste at the city’s DPW barn, then we transfer it to the main yard waste location,” Comilla noted.
