Garbage Truck Ride-a-long

Last Friday, I woke up early and met a driver for a 5:30 am garbage truck ride-a-long. I rode in a front loading truck, pictured below. It has arms that extend to pick up the dumpster, so the driver can stay in the truck for the most part. There are several locations where my driver had to open a gate or move a bin out into position.

It was an interesting ride. We covered an area of South Phoenix from 56th to 7th Street. Places that have these 3 or 4 yard bins are churches, parks, and small apartment complexes. I saw some of the, shall we say, less glamorous parts of town. We came across overloaded bins filled with all kinds of items, bins with mattresses and furniture next to them, a dead cat (my driver had to call animal control), and a car parked in the fire lane blocking the bin (which the driver has to call in).

The driver has been driving for a while and enjoys his job. He likes working alone and working 4 ten-hour days. The driver is responsible for writing down mileage, and ensuring that he tips his load before it reaches its weight limit (or sometimes volume limit). He has to empty every bin and if he can't empty one for some reason, he has to call it in. He has to watch out for children, animals, and especially low hanging wires.

The truck is very loud and fairly bumpy. The smell wasn't too bad until we got out of the truck, and when we got to the landfill tipping floor to dump our load.

I'm glad that I get to spend so much time out in the field experiencing what goes on. Everyone I work with does ride-a-longs as well, which is useful since most of the decisions made downtown affect the drivers' day-to-day work.

Transfer Station Tour

This morning, I took a tour of the North Gateway Transfer Station and Materials Recovery Facility with Patricia, the other intern. It was led by our coworker Terry. This was my first experience "out in the field," and next time I'll try to take pictures to make a more interesting blog post (I just found some online for this post).

What's a Transfer Station? This is where the garbage trucks dump their trash, so it can be consolidated into semi-trucks and then transported to a landfill.

What's a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)? This is where recycled materials are sorted and "baled" (like hay bales) to be transported and sold.

Terry is very enthusiastic about garbage and recycling and is very knowledgable. We went to a viewing area, where we could view both the area where garbage is dumped and the MRF. This is where they take kids on tours. It is filled with art, which is really cool. I recommend the interactive website: http://phoenixrecyclingproject.org/. Here you can view and interact with this art.



We also went on the floor, out to the areas where trash is dumped and to the MRF (Terry told us this is the VIP tour). Yes, the garbage side smells. They have to constantly be watering everything to avoid dust (AZ has pretty strict regulations about dust- small dust particles can get into the lungs). We saw things such as green waste, which can be sorted and mulched, appliances, metal, tires, and those giant old TVs. Those TVs are a problem because they are huge and no one wants them any more- if anyone has any ideas what to do with them let me know!

The recycling side was pretty interesting. The machinery is used to sort materials into plastic, glass, aluminum, paper, cardboard, etc. There are also workers who sort items as they come through the conveyor- some items could stop up the machinery. Rejected material goes on a conveyor belt to the garbage area.



If you get anything out of my post, remember this: DON'T RECYCLE PLASTIC BAGS! Plastic bags are a lot of the rejected recycling. They get very easily stuck in the machinery. Every couple of hours they have to stop the machines and cut out the plastic bags so the machines don't catch fire. You can turn them in at grocery stores at Bag Central Station, or reuse them as small garbage bags (you can store them in old tissue boxes or Lysol wipe containers).

The MRF is run by Recommunity, a company that contracts with the City of Phoenix. They sell the bales, which are sorted by type of material. Most material that is recycled in the US is actually sold overseas.

A few interesting facts:

• People throw all kinds of crazy stuff in the recycling bin. We saw clothes, propane tanks, and apparently even dead animals have been found in the recycling pile
• You can figure out where piles of recycling material came from by looking at the addresses on the mail in that pile
• Recycled green glass is the hardest to sell. Why? Think of what comes in green glass. Heineken, wine bottles....a lot of foreign imports. It would be expensive to send that stuff back to where it came from.

SWAG

Current Projects

I have been working on a few projects so far:

On-Call Bulk Trash Collection: Bulk trash is defined as items too large to fit in the regular garbage bin, such as furniture and yard waste. Currently, the City of Phoenix has 4 bulk trash pickups every year. The city is divided into 13 areas, and each has its own schedule for bulk trash collection. The City is interested in switching to a system, included in the base service fee, where customers can call to schedule a bulk trash pickup. I have been researching other cities that have an on-call bulk trash system and comparing different aspects of these systems.

Reno PAYT: PAYT is a pay-as-you-throw system of billing residents for garbage. Usually, it means the residents can choose which size garbage and recycling bins. Larger garbage bins are more expensive (usually recycling is not to encourage residents to recycle more). Reno is in the process of switching to a PAYT system. I found some of the information I was looking for online, but I emailed someone at the City of Reno. He was actually extremely helpful and gave me even more information than I asked for. Emailing for research isn't always productive, so I was very excited that this contact I made was so helpful.

I will continue to update on these and other projects I work on throughout the semester.

Describe a typical day at your internship

Well, I've only been at my internship about a week. I got to choose my own schedule so I am working 8-1 Monday-Thursday most weeks.

So far, I have been working on independent research projects. I am researching bulk trash pickup in different cities, and Reno, NV's pay-as-you-throw trash collection system. I have been going on a lot of different cities websites, particularly cities similar to Phoenix in size, climate, population, etc., and also getting in touch with some of the other city's employees.

I will be involved in more meetings in the coming days and weeks. Also, this week I have a tour of a transfer station scheduled, as well as a ride-a-long on a garbage truck! I will definitely report back about my tours and ride-a-longs. I will have at least one more ride-a-long next week, too.

I will spend a lot of time doing research and writing up reports or other deliverables, but I will also get to sit in on meetings and spend some time in the field, so I get a good balance of types of work.

Call Center

Earlier last week, I got a chance to observe the call center for Solid Waste by listening in on calls for a couple of hours. This call center receives all of the complaints and requests related to City of Phoenix garbage services. Despite having a potentially very high stress job, everyone in the call center is very friendly with a great sense of humor.

Most of the calls were people requesting replacement garbage or recycling bins or asking when their areas bulk trash pickup would occur. There were also people trying to determine if pickup had occurred yet that day, and people lodging complaints. The call center employees could look up routes on maps, including a GIS map with several layers. They could also call workers out in the field to check on how they were doing on their route for the day.

It was a good experience to listen in on these calls. I learned quite a bit more about how solid waste management works in Phoenix. I also always have great respect for anyone in a customer service job, as I have had several. They always require a lot of patience. I appreciated getting to know a few more coworkers too. Public Works is pretty large, so I am still just starting to get to know my coworkers.

Introduce the organization you are interning for. What do they do and what will you be doing for them?

I am interning for the City of Phoenix Public Works Department, in the Solid Waste division. Public Works includes garbage services, recycling and diversion, sustainability, design and construction management, and education and outreach. I am working in Solid Waste, which includes recycling programs, call center, billing, and routing, among other services. Public Works is a large department that takes up two floors in City Hall.

I am an administrative intern. Here is my official position description: 

The purpose of this internship is to conduct independent and directed research 

and program development related to sustainability initiatives specific to the Solid 

Waste Division of the Public Works Department. Work requirements normally 

have division-wide impact and at times may involve other city departments, City 

Council and/or the City Manager’s Office. The intern must demonstrate high 

initiative and judgment and will provide professional level staff assistance to the 

department. 

I had a meeting with John Trujillo, Assistant Director of Public Works. The other intern and I discussed our strengths, skills, and interests and what we would like to do in our internship. We will both be working on various projects. With my interest in the politics of public policy, I hope to sit in on some City Council meetings and do work developed to policy within the Solid Waste division. I also expressed some interest in using data-crunching skills that I am acquiring through my classes in my internship. 

I look forward to learning a great deal about city government and contributing to sustainability within the City of Phoenix. 

Introduction

I'm Megan, a Master of Public Policy student at ASU. I am in my second semester of the program. I am a Phoenix native, and I attended Bryn Mawr College in PA for my undergraduate degree. After graduation, I lived in China teaching English for a year before I moved back to Arizona. I have experience working as a page in the Arizona House of Representatives for two legislative sessions, and as an intern at DES in the Office of Accountability. 

My internship for the 2013-2014 school year is with the City of Phoenix Public Works department, as an administrative intern in the Solid Waste division. 

My three goals for this internship:

1) Learn about city government and its sustainability programs

2) Gain research skills

3) Network and learn from my coworkers