Solid Waste Workshop Scheduled For July 7th

Ariel Fernandez

On Wednesday, July 7th, the City of Coral Gables will be holding a community workshop to discuss the City’s solid waste services.

For years, Coral Gables has dealt with issues with solid waste services, raining resident complaints on City Hall.

In a September 2019 poll by Gables Insider, 64.7% of the 510 respondents had seen a decline in their services and 53.8% were dissatisfied with services provided.

Over the last year, staff departures, vacancies, sick leave and an aging fleet have been provided as reasons for a decline in services that have left residents with full garbage and recycling bins for several days, and trash pits that have gone days before being tended to by the City.

The Workshop

The official notice reads, “Join us to discuss the City’s Solid Waste Services including garbage, trash, and recycling on Wednesday, July 7 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.”

How To Participate

Residents can participate three different ways:

1) in-person at the Police and Fire Headquarters Community Meeting Room (2151 Salzedo Street)

2) via this zoom link, or

3) by calling (305) 461-6769, meeting ID: 305 446 6800.

21 thoughts on “Solid Waste Workshop Scheduled For July 7th”

My husband was career military so we have lived in many cities across the US and many places overseas. This is the first place we have lived that allows junk other than yard debris left at the side of the road….AND it is often abused and nothing done about it. It is so easily controlled but it isn’t. If when the trash pit guys arrived at your house and you had illegal items on your pile just don’t pick it up and then the next day have code enforcement go on the route and fine those who had illegal piles in front of their houses. A few enforced fines should do the trick and then maybe people would pay attention!

please do not refer to “trash piles” as “pits” i have lived in the city since 1952, and they were always “trash piles”. the city converted to the “clam shell” buckets on the cranes to transfer the trash to the 32 cubic yard trash trucks, thereby creating the “pits”. we didn’t have “pits” in the 50’s and 60’s. the city should be responsible for occasionally filling in the damage and restoration of the ugly views they have created.
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Larger recycle bins / curbside pickup (recyclables and trash) would be nice.

I have no complaints on service – Coral Gables has been very responsive.

Two things: Empty pet fece bags into your toilet. Duh.

Secondly, Public Works has refused to enforce its own ordinances regarding trash, most notably cardboard boxes

The City needs to enforce the law and stop worrying about the complaints of the scofflaws who are probably the ones who won’t get the Covid vaccine either.

If city charge residents Ferrari type prices then you better provide it.

The recycling and waste services need to be analyzed. It is difficult to recycle on a shoe box size recycle that oftentimes does not even get picked up weekly. Bigger recycle bins should be provided. Additionally the trash on the swale should be reconsidered as often times when driving around the “City Beautiful” there are dumps of trash on the swale that is put out before the scheduled time or not packaged correctly. This leads to trash spilling out to the street and onto neighbor’s yards. I have videos of neighbors even walking over to others yards dumping their trash onto others so that it isn’t in front of their own house. People should be responsible for their own trash and dispose of things accordingly in their own property. Bag your trash.

The City’s service is fine, what’s not fine are the residents who turn the street into their personal junkyard. If you appreciate our city, don’t ruin it by putting your nasty stained mattress or disgusting toilet on the side of the road.

I am also satisfied with the services and appreciate side yard pickup. Let’s not complain ourselves into those disgusting large bins that city of Miami residents have to push out every week!! Yes improvements are always possible but overall they do a good job.

Unless the resident has called for a special pick up here’s a list of things that cannot be thrown into a trash pit.

Furniture
Paint cans
Glass
Fluorescent tubes
Electronics
Water heaters
Refrigerators
Washing machines
Toilets
Suit cases
Construction debris
Cardboard boxes (the city loses a ton of money on this one)
And any recyclable item

Waste management will not pick up bags of dog feces from a trash pit. Look up your closest pet waste station and walk the extra 100 yards

Last month the city collected over $30,000.00 in fines just based on the enormity of the trash pits. If you don’t want your rates to escalate, do not use your trash pits as your own personal Landfill.

I hope this comment gets sent to the City officials. I will not be able to join the call on Wednesday. Thankfully, we have not experienced lack of pick up, however they do not complete the job the way it should be done.
We keep our trash cans & recycle bins on the side of our house, as is something the city provides. This past year, about 80% of the time, the trash & recycle crew have been leaving our containers “thrown over the fence” after emptying them into the truck or they leave them near the street in our driveway when they found them behind our gate. This has never happened to us in 24 years but this past year the crew(s) have found a way to cut corners. When a resident is out of town or works long days, these cans & bins sit there, obvious to intruders that no one is home.
More often than not, we find broken glass on our street that residents clean after pick up. This should be done by the crew if they cause it during pick up.
City officials & supervisors need to come into our neighborhoods shortly after the crew(s) have been through to see how they leave our homes different than the way they found them.
It’s a training & supervisor issue & that starts at City Hall.
City officials need to communicate to residents that they are not to put trash cans & recycle bins out on the street for pick up. We are told we have “side of the house” service & that should be communicated to keep our City Beautiful.
The “vegetation claw truck” leaked hydraulic fluid near every vegetation pit in our neighborhood in March 2020. These spill marks are oily especially when it rains. We met with Robert Fernandez (Sanitation Division) but nothing has been done about the spill stains. If a contractor did that, they would be fined & required to clean the spill stains. Our streets already look terrible & have not been resurfaced in over 25 years. These spill stains will deteriorate the look & appeal of our streets.

Waste pick up services are outstanding, an infrequent hiccup is to be expected once in a while (an employee or two calling in sick, a truck in need of an unforeseen repair). Keep up the great work.

The problem is with some residents who still do not pick up after their dogs, or dispose of the little poop bags in the swale’s yard pit day after day. Or in many cases visitors, contractors, or other people driving thru the city disposing of garbage in the pit or on the swale (water bottles, soda cans, wine cups, food wrappers, etc), giving the impression of a “dirtier” city.

To make matters worse, add to the above the ever growing population of peacocks messing up yards, lawns, and sidewalks, and you get the full picture…

Thank you all for your time and dedication in keeping this city beautiful.

There is no reason we should be picking up 33,000 tons of yard waste a year when we only have 11,000 residential homes. That’s an average of 3 tons per household a year at the tune of 1.2 million dollars in disposal costs not including labor and equipment.

I have countless photos of washing machines, furniture, refrigerators, mattresses and construction debris on swales. Yesterday I called in a toilet. This is aside from the dog feces bags that float in the swales during the rainy season. Residents use their trash pits as their own personal dump site. It’s not the service I have an issue with, it’s the archaic system this city uses to pick up trash. I’ve lived here since 1967 and have only seen this City become dirtier as the decades go by. Since when is it ok to throw all your furniture on the swale because you’re moving? Since when did this become the norm? It’s a broken system. Pay close to 900.00 year to toss your toilet in the street. Anybody else have an issue with this?

I am satisfied and any problem is quickly resolved by Frank. My only complaint is that boxes cannot be placed in the curbside anymore

I agree service is fine and the very few times that recycle was not picked up Frank immediately took care if it. Otherwise everything has been fine. My only complaint is that boxes cannot be left on the curbside anymore

Services are fantastic. We lived in many places throughout the US. This is the best hands down. Kudos to those who serve our neighborhood.

The solid waste services in Coral Gables is one of the gems of living in the City!
Having weekly landscaping pick-up as well as other services on- demand, make it a City Beautiful!
Sure, there will be issues as there are with any service operation of any kind.
Keep the services while improving their delivery quality!!

Very surprised to hear that the service has been deficient for some people. I have nothing but praise for the service I have received ever since I joined the city some 20 years ago. On the rare occasion there is a problem it has always been corrected immediately.

Satisfied with current services, few times pick up was missed, Frank would send out pick up immediately!

I am satisfied with the services provided and strongly oppose making any changes. In the rare instance where there has been a missed pickup, the response has been immediate. Most, if not all, of our friends and family that are also residents of Coral Gables, support the continuation of the waste services currently provided, irrespective of additional charges associated with those services.