Since most carts are owned by disposal firms, skillful handling can cut costs.
Refuse containers get little respect. Perhaps that’s due to their purpose; “garbage is as garbage does?” But despite their lowly status, in the past 50 years, there have been many transitions in garbage “cans.” The ribbed-steel garbage can, with its detachable lid, gave a certain amount of security and neatness to one’s trash, unless the neighborhood contained crafty raccoons that could deftly lift the lids and rummage through the cans’ contents. The steel cans had their downside; they were heavy, and subject to rust. Later iterations, which included aluminum, reduced some of those problems, but the fact remained that metal trashcans could erode and be misshapen by ham-handed collectors or wayward drivers.
Plastic trash containers strove to solve problems posed by metal; these bins were lighter and impervious to water. However, early plastic models had their faults: Neighborhood pests could easily get into (or through) them; their light weight worked against them in high winds; and their composition/thinness made them vulnerable to cracks and breaks, whether caused by sun damage, temperature shifts, or careless use.
Trash bags offered lightweight convenience (most people dislike having to retrieve and stow trash cans), but their very composition caused tearing/breakage problems. In addition, refuse haulers had no way of knowing the bags’ contents: Were forbidden or dangerous items inside?
Commercial and residential trash bins now seem to be settling into two camps. Commercial bins, especially those of the Dumpster variety, are most likely metal; residential containers are overwhelmingly plastic, although a stronger, more robust variety than earlier, “retail store” models. Another advantage to plastic residential carts is that their size, configuration, and brand are often dictated by the refuse hauler, so the carts allow haulers to choose vehicles which best empty those carts, whether the vehicle is automatic or not.
Start With a Good Cart
Kansas City, MO, gets its share of weather; summers can be blistering hot, and winters can be very cold, with lots of icy precipitation. Choosing a trash cart that can stand up to such abuse is crucial, and the city is happy with its choice.
“We haven’t had one destroyed yet,” reports Mike Shaw, assistant to the director of public works, Solid Waste Division. “Kansas City has a program with Otto, which manages the carts on the street. If there’s a problem, within 12 to 24 hours they resolve the issue, whether it’s collecting/replacing a cart, or adding a new cart.” Shaw refers to Charlotte, NC’s Otto Environmental Systems, www.otto-usa.com, which manufactures the 65- and 35-gallon carts the city uses.
In Kansas City’s instance, Otto is an active member of the city’s solid waste team. “The carts are owned by the city, and we have a warehouse with extra carts on hand,” Shaw says. “We also provide Otto with an office branch, or substation—they walk amongst us. Some of our carts are for recycling, and we have a special-event recycling program. For example, say there’s a concert in one of our parks. We can put carts out—up to 200 containers—for those events. Otto will deliver and pick them up.”
As certain trash items, such as household cleaning chemicals, might damage, or at least “stink up” the containers, Kansas City requires residents to use trash bags inside the carts. “We haven’t had too many issues,” Shaw says. “Maybe one or two that smell bad. If so, Otto swaps them out, and that address’ service ticket is updated—such as, ‘cart is moved, now a different cart is there.’ All carts are bar-coded and assigned to a specific address. Ordinances prohibit customers taking carts with them if they move. If we do find a cart where it shouldn’t be, due to a windstorm, et cetera, Otto picks up the cart and takes it ‘home.’”
Do the carts have to be repaired or replaced very often? “Very few have been damaged. Some residents in the past have spray-painted their address on their can, which is wrong, and we cleaned it off. One cart—a squirrel chewed on the lid, so we replaced the lid. Perhaps the tipper on a trash truck is out of alignment, and stretched the cart’s bar. In that instance, we will swap out the cart and repair the broken one at our convenience.” Kansas City uses end-loader trucks, semiautomated; special hooks on the back of the truck grab a cart by its bar, dumping its contents into the truck.
“We’ve had maybe 10 repairs total, and only because people put the wrong stuff in a cart, making it extremely overloaded. We’ve never had wheel break or had a cart crack. Otto carts are strong and durable, with no color fading. As the carts have 12-inch wheels, you can’t really drag the cart, which could damage it, and those large wheels allow easy leverage—you just tip the cart by its handle and wheel it to the curb. We’ve had no problems with Otto; they’re good to work with. They do what they say they’re going to do.”
A few hundred miles south, the town of Highland Park, TX, also owns Otto carts. “We have 3,000 customers. A local firm, Republic, picks up the carts with their tipper trucks,” explains Director of Parks and Recreation and Sanitation Ronnie Brown. “At one time, carts were breaking, so Otto came down and checked everything. Some adjustments of Republic’s rear tippers—getting the hydraulic cylinder to not pull the cart apart—solved the problem. Once we adjusted that, the rate of failure is almost zero.”
Highland Park, a suburb near Southern Methodist University, just north of downtown Dallas, doesn’t allow alley parking, as those are the routes trash trucks travel. The alleys are paved, with a little bit of right of way, but their size wouldn’t allow a fully automated side-lift trash truck. And those alleys must be kept tidy!
“When we ‘sold’ the cart concept to the town council, we stressed carts’ uniformity,” Brown says. “Ours is an upscale neighborhood, but in the backyards and alleys there were metal cans, bags, et cetera—not a pretty picture. Carts helped public health and eliminated litter. They also fight the mosquito problem, as the attached lids flip back down after emptying, and don’t collect water, as an open, separate-lid can could. Residents are responsible for keeping their carts clean; we don’t have a cleaning program. But there have been no problems with that, as all garbage is bagged, in paper or plastic, inside the carts.”
Repair and replacement isn’t a large problem. “We initially bought 95-gallon carts but learned one size doesn’t fit all. I ended up buying some 35- and 65-gallon carts as well, to offer a ‘custom fit’ for residents. Otto offers a routine maintenance plan, at a monthly payment, but we’re so small we didn’t sign up for that. After a year I had 50 or 60 damaged carts, so I cannibalized them, did repairs and welding—actually, with plastic, it’s fusion—and fixed probably 30 of them. The rest our crews used to store things, such as repair parts like axles and wheels.”
There are a few instances of damage from residents’ overload or abuse, but Brown is working through that problem. “We talk to the residents who’ve overloaded their carts and threaten to have them buy a new one, but we haven’t actually done that yet. Sometimes overloading comes from when a homeowner is remodeling; work crews have been known to throw their debris in the cart, instead of putting it in the roll-off container. We have two building inspectors, and they check on where the construction debris is going, whether it’s rock, soil, or construction debris.”
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Photo: Bayne Machine Works. Inc.
Lifters can spare a worker the pains of back strain. |
Highland Park bundles its refuse collection charges on residents’ monthly water bills. “We don’t bill by the size of the carts; we’re very service oriented. In a nearby town, they give you a 95-gallon cart, but you can pay less for your trash if you get a 65-gallon. We also pick up yard waste—we call it a ‘humic resource’—38 weeks per year. Residents put that debris in bags. We currently have 18-gallon bins for recycling, and since we’ve seen a 50% increase in recycled material picked up, I’m going to request a recycling cart for our next budgets, because people are recycling more. When people move to town, they ask more about recycling than trash.”
Maintenance-Free and Midwest-Wind Resistant
In addition to “emptying convenience,” Iowa City, IA, finds another advantage to using carts: “In the past, on a typical street on a windy day, there would be trash cans and lids all over,” says Rodney Walls, assistant superintendent of solid waste. “With carts, the lid is right there with it, attached. This really cleans up a neighborhood. Of course, too, unlike old galvanized steel cans, the 65-gallon carts don’t blow over easily.”
Since 2000, Iowa City has been using carts from Charlotte, NC’s Schaefer Systems, www.ssi-schaefer.us. “We did a pilot program in 2000, retrofitting trucks for semi-automatic use, and purchased about 2,000 carts to use with them,” Walls explains. “We liked the results, and went for that system. Other towns we talked to advised us to have only one size of can; they said it was too much hassle to have various sizes. We decided on the 65-gallon cart. A 95 was too large, and the 35-gallon not only blows over too easily, but people might also overfill that size. We tried various cart designs; one brand didn’t work well because its lids were too long and would get broken. We really like the Schaefer; it’s really the best.”
Iowa City, which collects trash from 14,500 households (single-family homes up to four-family homes), currently furnishes carts for 8,000 households. Its fleet consists of two automated and two semi-automated trucks. “The city owns the carts, which have a hot-stamped number on them, to keep track of each. Any cart breakage has been from homeowners; in those instances, we just replace the cart. Oh, if we have a broken lid we repair it, but that’s a very small issue—Schaefer carts are nearly maintenance free.”
Cart Handling Counts
Many waste haulers use semiautomated or fully automated equipment to empty residential carts. A percentage of the front-loading trucks owned by Phoenix, AZ’s Republic Services use a Curotto-Can, www.curottocan.com, to empty residential waste. No matter how the carts are emptied, choosing a quality cart is the first step.
“First, understand the environment in which the equipment is going to be used,” says Brent Goodsell, Republic’s director of operations support for collections. “In the waste industry, it’s expected that containers will be subjected to their share of abuse—by the material placed in containers, the different climate conditions, and the wear from being emptied by the collection vehicle. Second, we selected vendors that can manufacture equipment to our specifications.”
However, even the best cart can need repair. “Container lids and wheels are the more common failures, mainly caused from wear and tear of equipment used to empty containers, abuse from both customers and employees not properly handling the containers, and different climates. Any of the moving parts, such as wheels, lids, or pressure points on the equipment through normal servicing of the customer can be likely areas of failure,” he goes on. Repairing is tried first: “Typically, repair is the best solution for minor repairs, as long as the cost of repair is more feasible than purchasing new.”
As Republic owns the carts, it’s usually one of its employees who notices repair needs. “The container delivery personnel make the exchanges and minor repairs. Repairs unable to be made onsite are performed in the container maintenance shop.” There’s damage caused by wear and tear, and then there’s abuse. Does Republic “go after” the customer culprit? “This would be addressed on a case-by-case basis at the local division, to determine if the fee structure would outweigh the amount of ‘unreasonable abuse,’” Goodsell says.
“As we also operate a hauling company, we know what carts cost. Each cart that doesn’t last its expected life comes right out of the bottom line. Our can is the gentlest on all types of carts, even injection-molded carts,” says Frank Kennedy, Curotto-Can’s sales director, from his office in Sonoma, CA. “No metal touches the cart—only rubber and plastic. Cart life expectancy is about 10 years, or about 500 lifts—not many, when you think about it. Most carts need to be replaced because lifting devices damage the cart. Cascade Engineering, an injection-molded cart manufacturer, tests our grip-and-lift systems to over 30,000 cycles—with no damage. Curotto-Cans have a standard adjustable port relief on the grip circuit so, regardless of cart type and size, the grip force can be tuned for each customer’s needs. In addition, our system can load carts that are placed backwards and sideways without damaging the cart.”
The Curotto-Can takes care during the entire process. “We are gentle on lids. Automated side loaders (ASLs) tend to whip the lid on the top and bottom of the load cycle. Our motion is lid-friendly. If a cart is inadvertently dropped in the container, the operator simply and safely retrieves the cart without having to enter a confined space. Entering an ASL hopper is so dangerous, most companies instruct the operator to just pack the cart. Then the firm has to provide a new one to the customer—which can cost up to $130 for each assembly and delivery. The bottom line—if a customer is truly interested in cart cost, durability, and reliability, they need to look closely at the machine that’s handling the cart—to have a reasonable expectation of how well the investment will work.”
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Photo: Otto Environmental Systems
Choosing a cart that can withstand the rigors of automation is crucial. |
Don’t Lug—Lift!
Many haulers still use rear-loader trucks, which traditionally have been filled manually. However, add-ons can streamline this process, while it also takes care with carts.
“Although our main reason for buying lifters was for worker safety, they also lessen damage to our carts,” reports Bill Radosevich, president of New Mexico Waste. The firm furnishes its customers with 95- and 65-gallon carts, and has equipped its vehicles with lifters from Romeoville, IL’s Perkins Manufacturing Co., www.perkinsmfg.com.
New Mexico Waste, which serves about 4,000 households in Tijeras, NM, owns its trash carts, rather than having customers buy them, for a variety of reasons: “I don’t want someone buying a cart and not maintaining it,” Radosevich says. “When the customer owns a cart, there are liability reasons as well; if we own the cart, we don’t have to pay someone if we damage it. In addition, we get to put our advertising on our carts, and they’re all serial numbered so we can keep track of them and any possible problems.”
When damage occurs, action must be taken. “What’s done depends on the type of damage; carts are typically replaced and brought back here to repair, if possible, and if we have the parts. Carts have a lot of warranty parts, such as lids breaking, if damaged by equipment. We salvage pieces if we can; if not, plastic carts are recycled. These repairs have to be done at our shop; we don’t carry parts on the trucks, there’s no room to store them. Maybe trucks can carry a spare set of wheels, but that’s about it. Normally we send a maintenance guy out there to take the customer a new cart and bring the damaged cart back here to fix.”
What usually breaks? “Lids and their hinges, typically caused by operator error,” Radosevich says. “Sometimes workers will try to dump atop other carts, and the lids get pinched somehow, by them trying to push trash down into the truck with a cart. We also see a certain amount of wheel failure—some from setting them on the ground too hard, some from customers dragging the carts and the rubber peeling off. That happens with our older carts; most of the newest ones we have, we have no problems.” Weather is a factor in some cart damage: “One of our operations is in southern New Mexico, mostly desert, with 100-degree-plus temperatures; our northern operation can get several inches of snow each year.”
Day-to-day cart maintenance is the customer’s job, but many don’t follow up. “We don’t clean the carts; we make that the customer’s responsibility. We recommend they clean carts monthly, but that doesn’t happen often. We also recommend the use of trash bags inside the carts, but many customers don’t. If the customer abuses or neglects the cart, resulting in damage, we bill them for full replacement price.
“We have a big issue in winter—people put ashes from their stoves and fireplaces in their carts, and the ashes are still sometimes hot,” Radosevich goes on. “We replaced about two dozen carts during winter 2009 to 2010 due to that. Earlier this year, we had a truck fire because of ashes.” (Ashes are a problem in many areas of the country; in some areas, one can advise customers to compost ashes in their gardens. However, check first with your local cooperative extension office before making that recommendation; for some soils, ashes can be a detriment.)
Radosevich, who has Perkins lifters on his rear-loaders, installed the units for two main reasons. “Lifters save workers’ backs. Plus the lifters save wear and tear on carts; people are a lot harder on carts than the machine is. After we installed Perkins lifters, we saw considerably fewer carts damaged. We’re still going through carts from the old system, left over from the manual dumping days, so it’s difficult to judge a percentage of carts ‘saved’ by lifters, but a lot fewer carts are being damaged. The biggest thing going for Perkins is its good service backing, or warranty; the products are proven in the industry. Perkins is big enough to provide me with what I need; if there’s ever a problem, warranty parts are sent to us ASAP. They’ve been great.”
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Photo: Perkins Manufacturing Company
Lifters from Perkins Manufacturing can be attached to a variety of vehicles. |
“Quality control—ISO 9001 2000—ensures that Perkins lifters are designed and manufactured to the highest standards,” explains Perkins President Robert Mecchi. “In addition, we help develop the ANSI standards pertaining to not only lifters, but also the equipment used with them, such as refuse trucks and carts. Perkins takes every precaution to ensure that the lifter eliminates the possibility of damaging carts by using composite materials on vital points where the lifter and cart contact each other. For instance, the upper hook of the lifter is made from a material that does not scuff, scratch, or damage the cart. We developed this in 2005, and we’re still the sole manufacturer to do so.”
Perkins lifters can be attached to a variety of vehicles. The firm’s Web site offers a convenient “Configure Your Lifter” function that allows customers to enter their vehicles’ criteria. The site will then list which lifters to choose. In addition, each Perkins lifter is labeled with information on compatible trash carts, so a perfect fit can be achieved. “For carts, our experience has been that as long as the cart capacity is not exceeded and the upper hook is cart friendly, carts can and do last a very long time. We’ve also seen that when a cart fails, it most often can be repaired, except when the upper pocket is damaged,” Mecchi explains.
Perkins also takes care that its cart lifter is as trouble-free as possible. “Our products utilize the strongest helical actuator. Key actuator components are hardened, and decades of experience have taught us that the life of the actuator is what keeps the total cost of ownership down. Perkins lifters have the lowest total cost of ownership by employing an actuator designed for longevity, not parts business. The actuator coupled with cart and route-friendly features—such as a composite upper hook, grease-impregnated materials and greaseless bearings, powder coating, and plating—ensure that Perkins lifters exceed expectations.”
Making Light Work of Heavy Recyclables
As any homeowner knows, the recycling is usually heavier than the trash these days. With this in mind, the city of Pittsburgh, PA, installed lifters on its trucks. “We use our rear-load fleet for recycling,” says Recycling Supervisor Shawn Wigle. “These 25-yard trucks are painted blue to distinguish them as recycling trucks, with the distinction of two tippers on the back, just for our 96- and 32-gallon recycling carts.” For this purpose, Pittsburgh uses Thinline lifters from Greenville, SC’s Bayne Machine Works Inc., www.baynethinline.com.
Wigle’s crews collect trash from 115,000 households per week; recycling routes cover half the city each week (which means neighborhoods get pickups every other week). “The city is divided into four zones. We send homeowners a recycling schedule. We also do lots of the county’s recycling pickups and have an ‘office paper route,’ which services city and county buildings, and our drop-off area.”
He doesn’t see a lot of cart damage: “Not with the tippers we have. We sometimes have tipper problems, but that’s due to the city’s topography—narrow alleys, very steep, winding roads. We can experience road clearance problems. Because of that, we have retrofitted some of our trucks, the double bodies. The newer tippers are better than those five years ago that went with single-body trucks. We recently switched to Bayne lifters,” he goes on. “So far, so good! The lifters are there mainly to keep staff from injury. And, since we have 20-years’ worth of carts out there, we have to service many styles. As there are three existing cart sizes, we need to get our tippers adjusted properly; the carts’ upper lip and lower bar that are caught, to lift into the truck, can sometimes hang up.”
Keeping carts clean is the residents’ job. “We don’t give ‘tickets’ for uncleanliness, but sometimes when trash gets commingled with recycling. Sometimes, if the situation is bad, we have to pull the containers and tell folks to get private hauler—but it takes a long time before we get to that point. We cite them first.
“Any failures we’ve seen are in older containers, usually the wheels,” Wigle goes on. “We have been replacing containers, but have been thinking about repair more often, as we have gotten a new wheel provider. We always have more need for containers than we can afford to buy, so it would be good to get some old ones out there, if we can repair them.”
Everybody Likes a Good Tipper
With the variety of equipment available, finding the tipper that works best for your firm might be a challenge. However, the city of Columbus, OH, found its favorite “by accident.” “We have a variety of tipper brands on our trucks,” says Bob Harding, automotive mechanic supervisor. “They’re specced according to the trucks; whichever truck company wins the bid, we buy them already on the trucks, whatever brand the truck uses. One rear-loader truck we purchased came with a Diamondback tipper. We’ve had no cart problems with Diamondback; I wish we could spec all our trucks with them.”
Columbus operates three warehouses/garages for its trash fleet; about 80 trucks are run out of each site. The city furnishes 90- and 300-gallon carts for its residents’ refuse. “The average homeowner gets a 90,” Harding explains. “In the older sections of the city, which have alleys, two or three homes share a 300-gallon.” These alleys don’t prove much of a problem for Columbus’ garbage trucks, “...except this past winter, with all the snow. The alleys aren’t plowed.”
Especially with the Diamondback lifter, which is manufactured by Diamondback Products in Lexington, NC, the carts are holding up well. “The only time homeowners have to buy a new one is if their cart is lost or stolen. If the cart is damaged, residents call our 311 call center to report it, or the waste crews might see the damage during collection and ask for replacement. Usually all carts need are new lids or wheels.
The Diamondback lifters are a little more gentle on carts than people are, plus the lifters save time and save on workers’ injuries.”
Harding is pleased with the Diamondback lifter. “We’ve been using it almost two years, and we really haven’t had any kind of maintenance issues. Drivers like the way the Diamondback works, especially that the unit folds underneath the truck. In an older section of the city, German Village, which has narrow streets, other lifter brands can scrape on the narrow pavement and drag off. The next batch of trucks we order, I’m going to ask if we can have Diamondback added to the specs!”
Duncan Disposal, which has served South Lyon, MI, for nearly four decades, likewise appreciates Diamondback tippers.
“We have one on a rear loader; we’ve been using it about three years,” says owner Randy Duncan. “We replaced the first part on the Diamondback a few months ago—that exceeds the usual life of other tipper brands. Anything you can keep mechanics’ hands off is good—that means lower cost,” he chuckles.
Duncan’s firm covers about three Michigan counties, splitting its workload equally between city contracts and subscription hauling. “We own the trash carts; people choose the size they want—either 65- or 96-gallon. We replace broken carts free of charge—unless their kids set it on fire or something like that. Of course, we replace a cart if our truck broke it. We’ve been using carts for a long time but traditionally used other lifters. However, we’re really happy with Diamondback; they’re tough and durable and survive trips to the landfill, since they tuck under the truck—no problems with dragging. Diamondback lifters are really good with the carts. Oh, we had a batch of bad carts, and any tipper broke them, but since we’ve replaced those, the Diamondbacks haven’t broken one cart.
“Even the heaviest carts are lifted with no problems,” he concludes. “Some tippers have a jerking motion which can twist the cart and damage it. Diamondback lifters distribute the weight, and don’t ‘skew’ the cart.”