Every week, many of us roll out our trash cans to the street to be picked up by the garbage collectors. If you live in the city of Phoenix, you could be leaving your bin out in the wrong spot and breaking the law.
Aaron Edgell, a 44-year-old man with muscular dystrophy, relies on his motorized wheelchair to get around. Unfortunately, when he rides along Arizona sidewalks, he sometimes runs into obstacles that make it impossible to continue through. Those obstacles are trash cans that are placed out there every week for collections.
“This is how I get around,” said Edgall, talking about his wheelchair. He needs the chair and unobstructed sidewalks for transportation, but he finds that he often runs into problems. “You often find garbage cans in the middle of sidewalks and they’re impassable at that point,” he explained.
When Edgall comes across a can blocking the sidewalk, he is forced to ride his wheelchair out into the street to go around the obstacle, which poses an obvious threat to his safety. Otherwise, he could risk getting stuck in the dirt and rocks trying to pass the trash can. “It’s scary,” he said. “You take your life in your hands every time you do it.”
Improperly placed trash bins in Phoenix – on the sidewalk.
Although residents are part of the problem, sanitation workers also contribute. Edgall’s friend took a video of the city’s workers emptying the cans into their truck, and then replacing them onto the sidewalks. “Technically, they’re breaking our city ordinance when they place containers on a place that is not allowable – which again is in the street or in the sidewalk,” said Felipe Moreno, who is a deputy public works director for Phoenix. “Put the container at the edge of the curb, away from vehicular traffic.”
Properly place trash bins on the curb in Phoenix.
Some residents of the city say they haven’t ever heard of this rule before, and the same goes for the sanitation workers. There seems to be a real problem of people being uneducated of the rules, and it happens all across the city. “When a driver makes a mistake, we work to help them understand and retrain them and educate them – just like we would a resident,” Moreno explained.
Other residents of Phoenix say they don’t feel like it is a good idea to place the trash cans on the curb, even if they do understand the reasoning behind it. Cars drive too quickly and too close to the curbs, which could cause accidents and collisions with the cans.
Although nobody has been fined for improperly placing their cans, those who repeatedly have offences could be fined $150 to $1,000. Phoenix drivers should take caution when driving through residential areas with curbside cans. It is certainly the better solution over having disabled residents put their lives at risk by taking wheelchairs to the street.
Edgall encourages everyone to follow the trash pickup guidelines outlined by the city, and to be courteous of people in wheelchairs.
Story via CBS 5 AZ
Why doesn’t the city write on the can ‘place on curb…not on sidewalk’
Brilliant idea.
in the next water bill put the alert.
Are there any rules as to where cans are stored on non-pick-up days?
Hi Joyce, thanks for commenting! For questions about trash can placement, please email the city of Phoenix Public Works department at pwserve@phoenix.gov.
So dont put them on the sidewalk because its a hazard. But when people put these things on the curb, especially on streets with designated bike lanes, the City causes an additional hazard to bicyclists who are required to “ride as close as practicable to the right side of the roadway. These things make bike riders use the travel lane, and in the case of bike lanes, causes them to abandon the bike lane due to a hazard. Even more dangerous since motorists aren’t expecting bicycles to be in the travel lane. I sure hope this “rule” doesn’t expose the City to damages due to injury and/or property loss.
The Phoenix City Ordinance follows:
ARTICLE III. SOLID WASTE
COLLECTION
Sec. 27-19. Residential user containers;
ownership, placement,
responsibility, and enclosures.
J. To ensure containers are placed out on
time, containers may be placed at the curb after
6:00 p.m. on the day preceding collection. Containers
for street collection must be placed at
the curb for service no later than 5:30 a.m. on
the day of collection. They must be removed
prior to 5:30 a.m. of the day after collection. It
is unlawful to place or permit containers to
remain adjacent to the curb except upon regular
collection days. Containers must be stored,
between collection days, on the user’s property
so as not to interfere with pedestrian or vehicular
traffic. *
Note: “at the curb” does not say in the street or on the sidewalk as they have always been. Since they have been on the street, I noticed a bicyclist almost get hit by a car because she could not ride next to the curb. I confirmed with the City that either way is acceptable. People should place them close to the curb whether on the sidewalk or on the street. This allows a stroller or wheelchair space on the sidewalk and keeps kids on a bike from riding into the street. I would not want to be responsible for a kid getting hit by a car avoiding my trash cans.
Thank you Clayton for clarifying that. Back in the late 70’s early 80’s when they changed to the cans we have now, the city sent out laminated cards showing drawings of where the cans should go, Placement was to be on the sidewalk but the front edge of the can was to be 4 inches over the line “toward the street”. That leaves plenty of space for strollers, kids bicycling, wheelchairs and pedestrians to pass behind the can. PLENTY OF SPACE. In my new neighborhood, I increasingly see cans on the street with the wheels tucked into the water channel. One house did it, so all the neighboring lemmings thought that’s what you’re supposed to do. Now the street is lined with cans in the street ON BOTH SIDES! The driving space is now unreasonably limited. AND, often times as the collections truck lowers the can back down, the wheels land on the slope of the curb and the can then falls backward half on the sidewalk and half on the street. This lack of common sense is just another shining example of what becomes annoying about humanity.
I have often taken late night walks and repositioned trash can, moving them off the sidewalk and onto the street curb. However, I live on a small cul-de-sac. Considering the turning radius of the garbage trucks, I have talked with the driver, and he said he preferred to have the trash cans BE placed on the sidewalk in the cul-de-sac. Probably something that city hall didn’t think about.
So confusing…in our last house in Mountain Park Ranch, our neighbors were placing their cans on the sidewalk. When our kids walked to school, they had to go into the street. I put a note on each of my neighbors doors asking if they could please put theirs cans in the street so our kids didn’t have to endanger themselves on the way to school. Next thing I know, someone from the City of Phoenix was knocking on my door! He told me the cans go on the sidewalks and so I asked him, “Is trash more important and valuable than our children?’. He didn’t know what to say. I am happy to see they have changed their priorities. Thank you so much!
Rebecca, I don’t know what kind of weird sidewalks you have, but if the can is placed properly to the edge of the curb on the sidewalk, there is more than enough room for kids to walk behind. Saying they have to walk into the street to go around the cans is a gross exaggeration just to force the city into doing something unnecessary. It’s more dangerous for vehicles to navigate through lines of cans in the street on both side. People even often put their cans too far into the street. Ridiculous-common sense is lost.