City of Raleigh’s Solid Waste Services (SWS) will improve collection efficiencies in our residential garbage, yard waste and recycling programs beginning in April 2020. As a result, collection days and/or weeks will change for about 4,000 residences. (The City has about 122,000 residential service locations.)
Changes in Residential Curbside Collection Programs
With a steady increase in the number of residences in Raleigh, along with additions and improvements to streets, SWS is increasing collection efficiency in our three primary curbside collection programs:
- Garbage
- Yard waste
- Recycling
The affected residences will experience a garbage, yard waste and recycling collection day change, a recycling week change or both beginning April 7.
Who’s Affected?
The affected geographic areas are marked in the map below. Input your address in the map below to see if you are affected.
If you are affected, you will start to receive notifications in late January. The City will use a variety of communication methods, including voicemail messages, postcards and notes attached to trash carts.
The planned changes result from a comprehensive review of our collection routes. The changes are expected to help us increase collection efficiencies by allowing us to:
- Improve the compactness of routes, resulting in the reduction of one garbage route per day and increased parity (balanced service loads) among routes; and,
- Improve the travel path that trucks follow to collect curbside items.
Making the changes is expected to bring several benefits:
- Environmental stewardship — by eliminating one route and reducing miles traveled, we expect to reduce our carbon footprint by up to 570 tons a year;
- Improved efficiency and traffic flow — by balancing routes, we expect to reduce up to 51,000 miles traveled a year; and,
- Continued customer service excellence — by balancing the workload across our routes, we are setting up our operations for future growth, strengthening our ability to continue providing excellent customer service.
- The City made every effort to minimize service day and week changes.
"One of the most fundamental ways we can improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods is by proactively addressing the basic needs of our residents. By making these changes to our collection efforts, we will increase our operational efficiency and maintain our high level of service for Raleigh residents," said Stan Joseph, City of Raleigh Solid Waste Services director.