I wrote an email to DeKalb County Sanitation asking about the number of crews working and any gratuity details. I thought the response might be useful to the Aha! readers.
Mr. Wilkinson,
Thank you for your question and letting us know you and your association appreciate our employees and what they do year round in the collection of household garbage and recycling.
We have separate crews who collect household garbage from others that collect recyclables. Household garbage vehicles are dedicated to trash and waste only. We do not use household garbage vehicles to collect any recyclables.
Recycling vehicles collect yard trimmings recycling in the morning and change over to single stream recycling in the afternoon. Some crews do this visa versa but the same crew collects all the recyclables using the same vehicle at different times of the day. Yard Trimmings Recycling goes to the compost facility at Seminole Landfill and single stream goes to a vendor in Forest Park to process.
When residents want to show their appreciation please place it with the containers the particular crew you intend to give the Christmas cheer to. In other words place a item well marked in plan site on the household garbage container and the other item on the recycling container. The crews are instructed and know which items are meant for them. We coach the crews every year not to open any mailboxes, ask the customer for something and to only retrieve the item placed with their collection container they have responsibility to collect.
We have had some problems in the past with the general public or a particular crew taking items that do not belong to their crew. The crew will share whatever items they collect with everyone on the vehicle including drivers and collectors. They divide up at the end of the work shift.
Our crews really appreciate the small Christmas cheer items some customers give them. We coach our crews not to expect anything but be appreciative and courteous if a customer gives them something.
Our supervisors try extra hard to monitor this as much as possible during this time of the year to insure all of our crews are following the basic rules. Supervisors understand that these items are intended to be given to the front line employees for all they do all year.
Thank you again and following these guidelines to be sure these items get to who they are intended for during this holiday season.
Again, thank you for your comments and asking the question.
Billy Malone
Associate Director – Sanitation
404-294-2927
wcmalone@dekalbcountyga.gov
