City of Seattle asking you to help report failed garbage pickups

The City of Seattle is asking for your help to hold Waste
Management accountable for garbage service during a
strike that’s reached its eighth day.

According to the city, its contract with Waste Management
makes the trash collecting service liable for as much as
$1.25 million in fines per day that garbage goes
uncollected. The fines begin Wednesday.

Seattle residents are asked to put out their garbage for
collection as temporary workers begin picking up trash.
They’re supposed to leave cans out for collection until
they are picked up or until the next day at 6:00 p.m.

>>>Check Waste Management service delays in
your area

If residents have not seen collection by that time, they
have been asked to Tweet the block where they live,
“#theymissedme” and a picture of their waste bins.

Seattle Public Utilities will be monitoring the Tweets
and taking emails from residents who don’t use Twitter to
assess the fines they will impose on Waste Management.

The revenue from those fines, according to Mayor Mike
McGinn, won’t go straight to the city’s pocket book.

“Every penny that we collect from Waste Management, we are
developing a customer rebate program. The details of which
– we’ll figure it out,” said McGinn. “We’ll put all of
that money back into reducing our customers’ bills.”

Meanwhile, the city is also letting Waste Management
customers make free dump runs during the garbage strike.
Single-family residents in Waste
Management’s service areas have been permitted to drop off
up-to-six bags of garbage and yard waste for free at the
south and north transfer stations.

Both stations are open seven days a week. The north
station operates 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the south station’s hours have been extended
until 9 p.m. for the duration of the strike.

>>>Web
cams: Check the wait at the north and south transfer
stations

Problems did arise at the north transfer station Wednesday
morning. A crow took out a power line and a line form
outside causing traffic delays throughout the Fremont and
Wallingford neighborhoods as residents tried to take
advantage of the free waste drop-offs.

McGinn said that they are encouraging Seattle residents to
only take their excess garbage to the transfer station as
the strike continues. He hopes a sense of “community
spirit” will stop others from cleaning out their garages
and making multiple trips to the dump, which would
assumedly cause longer lines for others.

“Of course, we also have an interest that workers in this
town and people who work in the city are treated fairly,”
said McGinn. “We expect that this negotiation would result
in a fair outcome and we’d urge the parties to negotiate
towards that fair outcome as well.”