Latest / The City of Frankfort Podcast / Ep 25: Garbage Workers Appreciation- Talking Trash

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Ep 25: Garbage Workers Appreciation- Talking Trash · The City of Frankfort Podcast

• 0:22
  Welcome to the City of Frankfurt Podcast. I'm Sarah, and today we're recognizing
• 0:26
  National Garbage Workers Appreciation Day by talking a little trash with our
• 0:30
  city and county solid waste coordinators, Byron Roberts and Allie Hall.
• 0:35
  Today's episode is all about how our solid waste system works in the city and
• 0:39
  county and maybe some behind-the-scenes things you've never thought of.
• 0:42
  Welcome, Byron and Allie. Thank you.
• 0:45
  Thanks for having us. No problem. So to get things started, let's first get
• 0:49
  to know you both a little bit. Byron, why don't you tell us how you got started
• 0:53
  with the city and a little bit about you?
• 0:55
  I started at the city 27 years ago working on a bike with a garbage truck,
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  and I worked my way up through the department to solid waste superintendent.
• 1:04
  Excellent. Very exciting.
• 1:07
  And Allie, why don't you let us get to know you a little bit?
• 1:10
  What's your position? How long have you held that with the county?
• 1:12
  Sure. Yeah, I'm Franklin County's solid waste coordinator, and every county
• 1:16
  in Kentucky is supposed to have one And that's a mandate.
• 1:20
  And I've been there since August 2023.
• 1:25
  I was working at a hydrogonic farm and we all got laid off and it shut down.
• 1:29
  One of those startups, boom and bust.
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  And Byron said, the solid waste coordinator job is still open.
• 1:35
  And I was like, no, it's not.
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  It's been months. And then I applied and I started working the next week.
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  So I didn't even have a gap in employment. I feel really lucky for that.
• 1:45
  But I've always been into composting and waste management. Excellent.
• 1:48
  Sounds like a good fit for you then. Yeah, it's been good.
• 1:51
  Okay, so most of us probably don't think much about what happens after we roll
• 1:56
  our trash cart out to the curb, but waste collection is one of the most visible
• 2:01
  and important public services that we rely on every single day.
• 2:05
  Can each of you tell us a little bit why this work is so important?
• 2:09
  Do you want to start by it?
• 2:11
  Number one, it's a health, a public health issue. If we don't pick up the garbage,
• 2:16
  it just piles up and you become diseased rats, critters all run through the
• 2:21
  neighborhood. Everything would be gross.
• 2:26
  It would definitely not be a clean
• 2:27
  place. It would not look very good for visitors coming in. Fair, fair.
• 2:32
  I think it's the one service that if it didn't happen for a day, everyone would notice.
• 2:38
  Yes, based on calls we received, I'd say yes, that is correct.
• 2:42
  I would agree to. Yes, it's very, very important.
• 2:45
  Byron, why don't you give us a look into the day-to-day life for one of your employees?
• 2:52
  Each day that my employees, they start out at 7 a.m. that when they roll out
• 2:56
  of the shop, it's a few minutes after seven, and they're out there in the heat,
• 3:00
  the rain, the cold, the snow, whatever the weather throws at them,
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  they're out there every day putting a,
• 3:05
  hard day's work in, keeping Frankfort clean.
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  Though the guys either driving the automated trucks, especially the guys on
• 3:13
  the bike and truck, they're actually picking up all the bulky items and some canned materials.
• 3:18
  Sounds like an important and serious job.
• 3:22
  What do you think is something the community may not realize about the role of a garbage collector?
• 3:29
  Uh how daunting the actually the task can be whether it's during all the weather or and even,
• 3:36
  during a major holiday we have a lot of extra trash that people don't think
• 3:40
  residents understand that,
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  how much trash is actually out there and how far behind we can get with a simple
• 3:47
  breakdown or just a simple extra day thrown on for our schedule yeah and then
• 3:51
  you add in just the element change and,
• 3:54
  dealing with them they're always having to watch your safety around them always the cars,
• 3:59
  pedestrians around each day. Absolutely. Okay.
• 4:04
  So Allie, your role as solid waste coordinator is still very much involved with
• 4:09
  daily garbage collection.
• 4:11
  Can you kind of walk us through a day in your life specifically pertaining to curbside collection?
• 4:16
  Sure. Yeah. I'm in office at the Franklin County Fiscal Court and my hours are about 8 to 4.30.
• 4:23
  So I take resident calls, But for a lot of calls with curbside collection,
• 4:29
  that should be directly to Republic Services because that's our contracted hauler.
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  But I'm getting emails and just different inquiries on like,
• 4:39
  can I recycle or upcycle a car seat?
• 4:42
  And no, you can't. Unfortunately, those expire. So just different things like
• 4:46
  that that not everyone might know about and a lot of outreach and education as well.
• 4:52
  Um and then i will just be in different community meetings and out of office
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  with that so we're really trying to get our diversion rate,
• 5:00
  up as much as we can so anything we can keep out of the landfill,
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  and then i also coordinate things like county-wide collection like household
• 5:08
  hazardous waste events um and so
• 5:11
  it's in office it can be on site at the road department we have a compost pad
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  so every day it looks a little bit different that's kind of fun yeah i like
• 5:19
  it a lot a little bit. It's super fun.
• 5:22
  What would you like for residents to know about the cruise serving Frankfurt and Franklin County?
• 5:28
  Okay, yeah. Well, currently we're contracted with Republic Services,
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  and they acquired Central Kentucky Hauling a couple years ago.
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  And so their trash trucks, they leave out of Benson Valley Landfill.
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  That's where the trucks live.
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  And they hit the road around 6.
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  And so they're out there just trying to get the routes done.
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  Something that I think is important for people to know is if you have an issue
• 5:57
  with skipped collection, which luckily that hasn't been much of a problem lately,
• 6:02
  definitely report it in the Republic Services app, call them,
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  email their local team, try to get that notice out that day.
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  Because if I get a call a couple days later about skipped pickup,
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  they're running routes in different areas of the county.
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  So people call me and say my pickup was skipped on Wednesday and it's Friday.
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  Friday they're out almost by Owen County running routes. So if they're not,
• 6:27
  you know, they'll try to service everyone.
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  But it is pretty specific to what area you're in and what area the route is
• 6:35
  that day and I don't have route visibility but I kind of know the general area that they're at,
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  but the Republic Services app has a new track my truck feature and so you can
• 6:48
  see the truck coming and kind of monitor the route that way which is really cool so
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  if people have are interested in the routes and that is an option for you to
• 6:58
  take a look at that sounds good yeah,
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  the biggest thing is just be patient around the trucks when you see them.
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  Use caution. Stay back away from them. I want to keep my guys safe out there
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  every day. A lot of people won't,
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  Say that it's hard to see a truck when it is, I'm going to flash some lights.
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  There's guys on the back of high visibility, clothing. So just be aware of the
• 7:19
  guys picking up the trash.
• 7:20
  That's a good reminder. Excellent advice. When I'm driving around South Brinkford,
• 7:26
  sometimes I'm like, this is your people that you love.
• 7:32
  So that's a good shout out. I like that.
• 7:35
  So the waste collection industry has evolved and changed like everything else.
• 7:41
  Byron, you've been in this industry for over 20 years. What are some of the
• 7:45
  biggest changes that you've seen in your time?
• 7:48
  Just here locally, I can say that we went from resident-provided carts to city-provided
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  carts. And then at the time, we were still picking up everything, all manual labor,
• 8:00
  And now we've gone to half the fleet is automated with only one driver and one truck pick in the car.
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  And the evolution of recycling as a whole, we went from multi-stream collection
• 8:12
  where we would sort it on the street to single-stream truck in a car.
• 8:18
  So it made a big difference on how the collection system changed. Okay.
• 8:23
  So you kind of lead into the next question I wanted to ask, which was one important
• 8:28
  thing that has changed over time has been the inclusion of other waste streams, not just trash.
• 8:33
  I was wondering, Allie, if you could talk to us a little more about disposal
• 8:36
  of other items, recycling, yard waste, things like that.
• 8:39
  Sure. Yeah, we have Yard Waste Wednesday at the road department from about 8 to 11.45-ish.
• 8:47
  Um and that's 100 lewis ferry road um but we offer that because there is the
• 8:52
  curbside limb pickup service but this is a great option for if you have like tree stumps
• 8:58
  grass clippings anything that a grapple truck couldn't easily pick up
• 9:03
  then we'll take that at the road department and that's open to both city and county residents um,
• 9:09
  household hazardous waste we have collection every april and October.
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  So keep an eye out on our website, social media.
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  And that's anything like batteries, cleaning chemicals.
• 9:21
  Someone just talked to me and I think they went to you guys about fluorescent
• 9:25
  tubes, those type of light bulbs. They don't take those at e-waste on Mondays.
• 9:30
  And then I would also say check our social media pages, Franklin County KY Solid
• 9:35
  Waste on Facebook, because I have random collections for different community projects.
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  So sometimes we're collecting used textiles that you don't want or bottle caps
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  and just random things. So if you have a collection of something,
• 9:50
  you're like, what do I do with this?
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  We might be looking for it for different crafts and things like that. Okay, it sounds great.
• 9:57
  So it really does take all of us to make our solid waste system function well.
• 10:02
  What are some things that residents can do to help the crews out there working
• 10:07
  to make things more efficient?
• 10:11
  The biggest thing to help, two of the biggest things is, one,
• 10:13
  give the guys remember they're working.
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  The other is, please separate the carts from all items, whether it's mailboxes,
• 10:20
  cars, signs. Keep at least three foot apart from all the carts.
• 10:24
  And just to remember to recycle the right things and keep the trash out of the
• 10:28
  recycle cart. Okay. Good advice.
• 10:31
  Allie looks like she agrees. And right now the growing issue,
• 10:35
  we luckily have not seen it too much, is batteries inside trash carts or recycle carts.
• 10:41
  Yeah. Big no. Not good.
• 10:45
  Can you tell us a little bit more about some different disposal options that
• 10:49
  are available to our community?
• 10:52
  We do have the city every Monday from 7 to 2.30. It offers an electronic waste
• 10:58
  drop-off for any small electronic item, especially batteries.
• 11:03
  It is open every Monday, except major holidays, and there's some holidays we
• 11:08
  do make some changes. So please check either the Facebook page or the City of
• 11:12
  Frankfurt website for any updates or closures on it.
• 11:17
  Well, we're talking about places to check for updates. Is there anything else
• 11:20
  that people can do to check? I'm just thinking, download the FrankWaste app. My favorite.
• 11:25
  You can download the app, put in your address. You can sign up for the notification
• 11:29
  either on your phone or through an email.
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  And if there's any service changes for city or Canada, you'll get a notification.
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  We won't blow your phone up with notifications. So you can, don't worry about it.
• 11:40
  We won't blow up your phone every day with notifications. If it's an emergency,
• 11:44
  especially during the winter, you know how everybody knows how the winter was bad this year.
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  If we have to make a schedule change, we'll just throw a notification out.
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  If there's a weather change, like possibly this summer, we might start earlier than our normal set.
• 11:56
  Perfect. Yes, I use it personally and I find it super helpful.
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  So I recommend it to everybody that I meet.
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  I will say, too, if you can't make it on Mondays for e-scrap drop-off,
• 12:07
  there are drop-offs randomly in the community.
• 12:11
  Staples takes a lot of different things. They have a list online.
• 12:15
  Lowe's takes lithium batteries, so rechargeable batteries. They take light bulbs.
• 12:20
  And it's just a drop-off bin around the store for both of those.
• 12:23
  But we have a full list on the franklincounty.ky.gov solid waste management page.
• 12:29
  Just so you have PES. Perfect. We'll do that, too. So never an excuse to put
• 12:34
  batteries in the trash can, ever. There's options.
• 12:38
  No batteries. So I wanted to ask each of you, what is your favorite part about
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  your job or the thing that you find most important?
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  You want me to go first? Just keeping Pfeiffer clean, making it look good for
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  the visitors that come into town every year for whatever event we have going
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  on or just to visit Pfeiffer in general. Excellent.
• 13:00
  Okay. How about you, Allie? Yeah. I care a lot about all types of sustainability
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  initiatives. So I would say just getting to get a little bit creative with that is really fun.
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  And then it's really neat to see when there is a lot of community buy-in around
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  a certain project or topic. When people are like, I want to volunteer. I want to help.
• 13:21
  Are you guys collecting this? It's really just great to connect with everyone.
• 13:25
  Yeah, really rewarding. Yeah. Okay.
• 13:27
  Well, Allie, if somebody wants to find you, where do they go? Who do they call?
• 13:32
  So the Franklin County KY Solid Waste Facebook page.
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  The county website is franklincounty.ky.gov. And then under government,
• 13:42
  there's a solid waste management tab.
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  And then there we have everything and a lot of different FAQs.
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  So if I'm not in my office and I don't answer the phone, your question is probably
• 13:52
  answered on the website just listed there. There's four different tabs now of
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  different pages of info.
• 13:59
  And then we have an Instagram as well, franklinco__solidwaste.
• 14:05
  And those are the two main places. Okay.
• 14:07
  Or I guess three, the website, Facebook, Instagram. Perfect. Keep things updated.
• 14:12
  All right. And at the city, it's a little bit different because Byron works,
• 14:16
  obviously, solid waste superintendent, which falls under public works.
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  And we're actually housed in two different locations. So the best way,
• 14:23
  if you have questions about city waste collection, is probably to call City
• 14:28
  Hall at 352-2088 and our wonderful administrative aide, Linda.
• 14:34
  Usually manning the phones and she's full of amazing information and can answer
• 14:39
  just about any question you have.
• 14:41
  Also our website and Frank Waste are my my favorite go-to's and of course the
• 14:47
  city's Facebook page for some updates.
• 14:52
  Well Byron and Allie I want to thank you both very much for what you do in our
• 14:56
  communities and also extend our thanks to all of your crews who work every single
• 15:01
  day to make our place healthier and prettier um thank you for joining us,
• 15:07
  we like to end each one of our shows with my personal favorite part frankfort
• 15:11
  rapid fire so as fellow frankfortians we want to hear some of your takes on our panel um,
• 15:19
  i'm going to ask some questions and you just say the first thing that comes
• 15:21
  to mind you can answer at the same time even i don't here,
• 15:25
  no explanation needed um are you ready yeah okay um favorite frankfurt event,
• 15:33
  october fest at sea bluffers oh okay yeah i'm.
• 15:40
  I want to say Bird on the Bay. I do ticketing. I check people in and it's fun
• 15:45
  to just say hi to everyone coming into the event.
• 15:49
  I don't know. I feel like I could name a bunch. Oh, I love the DFI Summer Concert
• 15:54
  Series so much. I try to go to all of them. Fair. I just love a free event.
• 15:58
  There's so many good events in the park.
• 16:00
  Yeah, I love a free event with live music. It almost isn't fair to start with
• 16:03
  that question I just give you one answer.
• 16:06
  Okay. Your favorite recyclable item? Oh, man. Maybe Byron and I are going to beef over this.
• 16:15
  Just paper in general. Okay. Why is paper your favorite?
• 16:19
  I see just... I use it so much during the day, so I'm always writing them over
• 16:24
  your notes from some reason.
• 16:26
  Satisfying. This is your favorite item to recycle. Okay.
• 16:31
  Mine's aluminum cans because they're infinitely recyclable. Oh,
• 16:34
  so there's difficulties with recycling glass. It's very heavy plastic.
• 16:39
  It can only be down cycle. That can't be a new bottle.
• 16:42
  Right. So aluminum cans are great. We got the aluminum ingots running through the train in town.
• 16:48
  Um, we tried to host a aluminum can recycling drive when we can with the schools.
• 16:52
  Um, so if I see someone throw away a can, I will actually ascend.
• 16:57
  I'll freak out. I can't do it. Um, but I would also say, um.
• 17:05
  Gosh, I had another one. Oh, I would also say Rumpke said at a sustainability
• 17:12
  summit that they really want to see more people recycling plastic.
• 17:16
  So if you use plastic bottles, soda, water bottles.
• 17:20
  I know we don't contract with Rumpke, but they were just saying that they think
• 17:24
  there's a lot of hesitancy around plastic recycling.
• 17:27
  They're like, give us your plastic, please. Type one and two bottles,
• 17:31
  jugs, and jars. They want to see more of it.
• 17:34
  Good advice i like it so some insider info i like it um okay how about your
• 17:40
  favorite frankfurt neighborhood,
• 17:42
  uh blind acres obviously yeah yeah i'm a south spanker girlie i was just talking
• 17:48
  about getting stuck behind the trucks and being patient i just love a walkable space no i like that,
• 17:56
  all right uh your favorite frankfurt community parker.
• 18:00
  What do you go? Probably the Frankfort or Frankfort, Frankfort County Extension
• 18:04
  Office. We do a couple of events with them each year, zero waste.
• 18:07
  Always enjoy working with Kenan Bishop up there.
• 18:10
  Excellent. Yeah, we love Kenan. He's on our Solve Waste Task Force, too.
• 18:15
  Right now, we're planning an event with Paul Sawyer Public Library.
• 18:19
  They're a great partner. So many good community partners.
• 18:22
  But we have a Fix-It Fair coming up July 18th from 11 to 2 with the library.
• 18:28
  And that is in collaboration with Franklin County Solid Ways,
• 18:32
  the library, Walk Bike Frankfurt, Cab City Museum.
• 18:38
  And a couple other groups but basically they were doing book repairs.
• 18:43
  If you have a book that's really specialty that's falling apart they have someone
• 18:46
  that fixes books that's going to be there. It's a free event.
• 18:49
  We're doing bike fixes so we'll oil your bike chain, remove rust adjust the
• 18:55
  seat height if you need it so we'll make some tweaks on your bike and then i'll
• 18:59
  be running a booth that's like epoxy,
• 19:02
  and so plastic repairs like i had sunglasses that cracked okay so that's kind
• 19:07
  of an example of something that we can glue together cap city is doing a jewelry repair booth and so,
• 19:14
  more like costume jewelry not fine jewelry but if there's a clasp that broke
• 19:19
  or something like that. They have that, bring that in.
• 19:22
  But you want to pre-register on Paul Sawyer's Google form just so we know who's
• 19:27
  coming and what we need to have ready to go.
• 19:30
  I like that, fix it instead of trash it, right? Yeah, so the goal is keeping
• 19:33
  items out of the landfill by fixing them.
• 19:36
  Thank you for joining us this week, fellow Frankfurtians. We'll catch up again
• 19:40
  next week on the City of Frankfurt's podcast.
• 19:42
  Don't forget to follow the City of Frankfurt podcast on Facebook,
• 19:46
  Instagram, TikTok, and make sure you subscribe to the show feed on Podbean to
• 19:50
  get weekly episode notifications.
• 19:53
  Bye. See ya. Thank you.