Birmingham residents: New, free trash carts are confusing, ‘giant’

Birmingham residents: New, free trash carts are confusing, ‘giant’

As the city of Birmingham reaches the halfway point on delivering free trash cans to residents, many have taken to social media to air concerns and confusion about the new rolling bins.

Some say the new 96-gallon cans are too big. Some complain that they don’t know what date to put the trash out. Others fuss about how neighbors don’t read the city’s communications about how to deal with the new trash pickup arrangements. Some have even taken to shooting video of supposed mistreatment of the new cans.

A typical complaint is the one Crestwood North resident Sylvia Martin registered on the social media site Nextdoor. “I’ve been waiting to get a letter about the garbage situation in our neighborhood before using the giant new garbage cans,” she wrote. “Has anyone gotten a notice about it? Garbage was not picked up yesterday. Anyone know what’s happening?”

The Birmingham Department of Public Works is nearly halfway through their delivery of 100,000 of the new smart chipped trash carts to homes throughout the city as a way to improve safety for waste collectors and increase pickup efficiency.

Trash pickup customers were supposed to have received an information packet and a letter with instructions on how to use their new cans shortly after they were dropped off according to the city website.