GREENSBORO, N.C. —
A Greensboro city program is charging people for leaving their trash out and it's set to begin next month.
Greensboro Waste Directions Supervisor, Tori Carli, said it's set to begin next month.
The push for change started in June, where the city of Greensboro planned to curb trash issues.
“The issue was people leaving it out for days and weeks and months and years on end,” said Carle. "For residents that do have to see these carts left out for weeks and months and years on end, it can be really frustrating because what if an animal crawls into it and then makes a mess? What if a storm like Hurricane Ian comes through and blows them all over and then you've got trash all up and down your street? So for some residents, it is a big deal to them."
At that time, the plan was to implement a 7-7-7 rule.
This meant bins could not be set out earlier than 7pm the day before service day, needed to be on the curb by 7am on service day, and be removed by 7pm that same day.
If the trash was left out after that 24 hours, it would come with a 25 dollar fee, but there was a lot of frustration when it was released.
“We heard the message loud and clear from residents, they were not happy about what the 777 rule was for them,” said Carle. "We really wanted to be more accommodating to residents that have various work schedule."
When the city of Greensboro got several complaints, that's when they decided to trash the idea and come up with another option.
“What we've changed it to is more of a 48 hour rule where you can bring it out as early as 7am the day before and bring it in by 7 am the day after,” said Carle.
"We heard a lot of people say that due to their their age or their disabilities that they weren't able to bring it out after 7pm, especially in the winter when it was nighttime," she said. "They weren't able to bring it in by 7pm the day of their collection day because they work you know, weird schedule, they're first responders, they're nurses, all these different jobs that you know work outside of the regular nine to five, we understand that we realized that the 777 rule was not illustrative of what we want the residents to do, and so the 48 hour rule, roll your cart back to your house to avoid a cart, rollback fee, and you're gonna be good to go."
This starts November 1st. Some people say they are thankful the city listened to their concerns.
“I'm really glad that the city is listening and when they said 24 hours first and people complained about it, they moved it up to 48, so I'm really glad the city is listening to the people,” Said Donte Mohajer, a Greensboro resident.
Some agree on this Facebook post saying that 2 days is ample time, but others aren't as happy saying it's ridiculous and what if someone is out of town?
The city said they just want to see a cleaner Greensboro.
“We are not patrolling, It's all complaint driven and we're not out, we're not out to be the trash police,” said Carle. "It's completely complaint driven, so somebody has to call in and complain about you and then we would drive out to someone's house, and if there's a cart out, then we're going to roll it back closer to the house than the street out of the right of way, we're gonna leave a warning on it and that warning will stay on that address for one rolling calendar year."
She said as long as you don't leave it out, you're not going to have any issues. If they do come out, it's left out, they have to roll it back to the house a second time or more, it is going to be a $25 fee per occurrence because a staff member had to go out and roll a cart back to your house.
She said residents can download the 'GSO Collects' app because it will remind you every week of trash and recycling day. It will also adjust if there are holidays or inclement weather. She said if your trash is going to be collected a day earlier or a day later, then you will know based off of the app.