The City is instituting the Clear Alleys Program (“CAP”) on March 30th, along with all the other changes to garbage/recycling services. CAP will make it mandatory for those who store containers/dumpsters in the public right-of-way (alleys, sidewalks, planting strips) to give up their current containers and instead use purchased bags that will be picked up several times a day. This will apply to businesses as well as apartments/condos, but only within a designated area (Pioneer Square, Downtown, Belltown). The laudable goal is to make alleys cleaner so that people might actually walk through them, and to decrease all the antisocial activities that now take place near dumpsters. If you want more detail about this program, go to http://www.seattle.gov/util/Services/Garbage/For_Commercial_Customers/ClearAlleyProgram/index.htm.
The bad news is that Capitol Hill is not included in CAP, for now anyway. However, there is a little good news…the City will be choosing one additional neighborhood to “opt-in” to the program in 2009, and our neighborhood is a definite possibility. I’m not sure who will be making this decision…but probably the ultimate choice will be by the Acting Director of Seattle Public Utilities (SPU). Once the neighborhood is chosen, and according to the person I spoke with at SPU, there will then be an “election” of sorts with the affected businesses/apartments/condos voting yes or no. A simple majority will decide if the CAP is then instituted for the designated area. In other words, to go “dumpster-free” will not be on a business-by-business basis…it will be mandatory for the entire neighborhood to participate (but only for those locations storing containers in public space).
I’m sure that other neighborhoods will be vying to “opt-in,” so I think it would be very helpful if those who care about this issue would “lobby” SPU for Capitol Hill to be chosen. Please call (206)-684-3000 (the main number for SPU) and ask to speak with someone directly involved in CAP. Thanks!
I have some trepidation about this idea – the plan is that bags will be picked up several times a day. What if this doesn’t happen? It won’t take long for rats and birds to discover the potential bounty and for alleys and other public areas to be a huge mess, with garbage strewn about.
I like some parts of the idea… but how much energy is wasted by driving all the alleys multiple times per day? I should follow the link and read about it, I guess. :-D
I wasn’t keen on this idea at first but as a business owner, I would definitely welcome cutting my garbage/recycling bill in half or less. We rarely fill up two half-dumpsters every week (recycle/garbage) and consolidating would be great. It would also discourage all of the people dumping into our dumpsters. It’s already a huge mess and the current system allows a lot of un-bagged garbage to go into dumpsters where it spills out all over the alley anyway when the trucks come. The birds and rats already have a go at all the loose garbage that dumpsters have in them for a week at a time. Plus, recycling is all loose as well which leads to a ton of broken bottles, straws, paper, etc… in the alleys.
I’ve seen the green trucks around a lot and they seem really efficient. I think they will start to get a schedule down so they aren’t doing multiple pickups. The current trucks already come down every alley every day.
I’m just wondering what we’ll do with cardboard boxes.
Presumably, cardboard boxes would be treated in the same manner they’ll be handled in existing Clean Streets areas: they’ll need to be flattened and either bundled or stuffed into an open cardboard box for pick up.
http://illusion.scene360.com/outdoors/2835/creatively-using-