The City’s Recycling and Solid Waste division on Feb. 1 changed when garbage, recycling and solid waste is collected for many of its customers in an effort to make routes for collection drivers more efficient.
About 85,000 customers were affected and recent data from the City shows that most residents were prepared for the change.
“We were really excited to see how many of our residents responded to our outreach campaign, especially considering what a busy year it’s been,” said Jesa David, media and communications specialist for Recycling and Solid Waste. “Looking at the numbers from the first few weeks, we were gratified to see a huge jump in web traffic and app downloads.”
Web traffic on the City’s Recycling and Solid Waste collection calendar page increased by more than 67,000 visitors in Jan. 2021 — five times more compared the same period in 2020.
More than 32,000 users since Feb. 1 have set reminders for their recycling and solid waste collection day, either through the website or the City’s SacRecycle mobile phone app, which can be downloaded for free.
“This is the first big change to routes since 2009,” said David, ”and we wanted to utilize all avenues of communication available to us today to alert those customers affected.”
The City told customers about the changes several months in advance through letters, email, advertisements and social media posts.
“The change was necessary to meet the demand of our growing city,” said Jerome Council, the City’s integrated waste general manager. “Sacramento has seen significant growth in the last five years, and collecting waste citywide in only four days was becoming increasingly inefficient.”
Before the change, City crews were collecting waste from more than 32,000 households per day.
That number has reduced to 26,000 household collections per day, allowing crews to perform better while collecting waste, according to Council. “The goal is to reduce mistakes caused by excessive demands on truck drivers and to improve service delivery.”
The Recycling and Solid Waste division collects trash, recycling and yard waste from more than 138,000 customers citywide.