EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Winter weather continues to take hold of the Borderland, but while the frigid temperatures and potential snowfall is the story on Wednesday heading into Thursday morning, windy weather caused a lot of problems — including power outages — with peak gusts reaching nearly 60 mph on El Paso’s Westside.
For many Westsiders, Wednesday also happened to be trash and recycle day. Residents are often faced with the same problem when their blue recycle bins are put out on the street on a windy day, having to chase them across the street.
So, what are you supposed to do with your recycle bin on those windy mornings?
KTSM reached out to the City of El Paso and Environmental Services for the answer. According to Ellen Smyth, chief transit and field operations officer with the City of El Paso, the answer isn’t always a popular one for residents.
“The rule of thumb if it’s going to be a windy day — if you can keep your blue bin in your yard or in your garage and not put it out, that’s the best option. That way it won’t blow away,” said Smyth. “In the event that it blows over, depending on the driver, some of the drivers will get up, get out, pick it up and straighten it. That is not a requirement because we have 250,000 homes that we’re trying to pick up.”
If you do opt to keep your blue bin off the street, you can schedule a pickup date with Environmental Services, but it’ll come with a $15 fee.
“There’s no good answer,” said Smyth. “We have this mountain (the Franklin Mountains) and it’s just as bad on the East side as well at times. Sometimes it’s the West side that gets the brunt of it. That’s never going to go away, so we really depend on our residents to help us out. Use your common sense and if it does get blown over, help us pick up the wind-blown (items).”
Residents have a couple of different options. They can also take items in their blue bins to one of five drop-off locations in El Paso for free, which are open Tuesday-Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“If you’re not able to take it to one of our five drop-off sites, as a last resort, you are recommended to put it in your gray (trash) bin,” said Smyth.
El Paso started its recycling efforts in 2007. Recyclables are collected every other week, on your regular garbage collection day as part of your monthly solid waste fee.
“Your monthly solid waste fee pays for the trash collection, the recycle collection, the landfill, the five drop-off sites, and the illegal dumping for cleanups. Any trash-related items is what it pays for,” said Smyth.
While the City says the best option on windy days is to keep your blue bin off the street, they recommend always putting out your gray trash bin because of health and safety concerns regarding the items in those bins. They are also typically heavier and don’t tip over on windy days.
For more recycling tips, visit the City’s Environmental Services website.
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