North Dodge Neighborhood Association

Solid Waste Management

One&One Program

The City Council approved phasing in this program city-wide starting July, 2001. However, the start date has been pushed back to sometime later in the year. When I get more information, I will be sure to post it here.

The basic idea of this program is to facilitate increased recycling of our waste - which we desperately need to do. A section of our neighborhood has been participating in this program as a pilot for over 4 years. The recycling aspect of the pilot has been successful.

Trash Pickup Issues/Problems

However, there are problems that need to be addressed. One being that under this new program, trash pick up can no longer be done in the alleys due to the increased size of the trucks purchased to pickup trash.

A second problem is the large dumpsters on the curb at multi-unit rental properties. These dumpsters are eyesores and health problems. They often have trash spewing out of them and tenants/landlords often pile up large items such as furniture or carpeting despite the fact there is no brush/bulky pickup scheduled for months.

A third problem is the smaller dumpsters that residents leave on the curb all week long. This a violation of section 15-8 of Chapter 15 of the City of Tucson Code. Also, they are eyesores that undermine our efforts to improve the appearance of streets in order to help improve the quality of life in our neighborhood.

Solutions & What You Can Do

What can be done to reduce or eliminate these eyesores? According to Jerry Anderson, SWMD "Director Eliseo Garza reassured the Mayor and Council that, with neighborhood and solid waste cooperation, our alleys can, indeed, be utilized for garbage, recycling and green waste pick up." The easiest thing for all residents without alley pickup to do is to pull the dumpsters off the curb on non-collection days.

We can report chronic code violations to Environmental Services Inspector Marinda Cox (791-3176 or mcox1@ci.tucson.az.us).

I'm not sure what can be done about the larger dumpsters at multi-unit rentals. Any suggestions? What did they use before these barrels? I don't remember seeing anything on the curbs before these were put there. Maybe we should go back to what was used before, or at least provide smaller dumpsters for the tenants to pull off the streets like single-family residents do.

Look for future updates here on the One&One Program.