Subzero Temperatures May Cause Trash & Recycling Delays on January 21, 2025

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Due to the subzero temperatures expected for the morning on January 21, 2025, some residents may experience a delay in their trash and recycling pickup.

Here’s what you should do:

1. Have Your Carts Ready for Pickup by 6:30am as Scheduled

Check your collection schedule.

If your carts are scheduled to be collected on Tuesday, January 21, 2025 get your carts out by 6:30am.

Remember, Monday, January 20, 2025, is the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.  If you have a Monday pickup day, your collection has been shifted back a day.

2. Keep Carts Out for Pickup if They Were Out on Time and We Did Not Collect 

We will be come back on Wednesday, January 22, 2025 to finish any areas we could not collect on Tuesday.

You can submit a report-a-problem to report a missed refuse or recycling collection, too.

If we are unable to finish routes due to the cold, we will be aware and will have a plan to return on Wednesday - but if you would like to send in a report-a-problem, too, that's okay.

Why might the cold be a problem?

Rear loading collection vehicles are used regularly to empty carts on certain one-way streets, alleyways, and other narrow areas of Madison.  Also, since January 21 is the day after a holiday, we may need to use more our brown rear-loading style trucks than usual to help us catch up from the day missed.

This style of collection truck requires our operators to manually dump carts into the back.  So, this means some our staff will be out in the below zero temperatures.

Of course, the crews assigned to this work will be bundled up and ready for this important, yet frigid, work on this day. We also must be mindful of their safety while being outside in sub-zero temperatures for long stretches of time.

Crews on rear loaders may be a little bit slower than usual while crews are trying to stay safe while completing their work, and this could lead to some routes being incomplete by the end of the work day.

What does this mean for you?

We will be doing our best to work quickly and safely to collect everyone’s trash and recycling as scheduled.

Please have your scheduled cart, or carts, out on time on Tuesday, January 21.

Most trash and recycling collection is done by an automated collection truck. These are the big blue trucks you have seen around Madison.  With this style of truck, the operator stays in the vehicle.  A robotic* arm reaches out, grabs the cart, and lifts it up to dump out the contents into the top of the truck.  Many residents will not notice a delay.

However, we cannot use automated trucks everywhere in Madison. 

If we cannot finish a route due to the cold, we will return to complete it on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.

Additional Information

More information about Streets Division services can be found on the Streets Division’s website.

 

*The arm is powered by hydraulics. The trucks and the arms are not autonomous. The operator inside the truck drives the vehicle and controls the arm to grasp onto the cart, and then triggers the arm to lift and dump the carts.  

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