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(CLEVELAND) – Dozens of residents attended a public meeting about curbside waste pickup with the city’s top waste official on Thursday. While answering questions about yard waste, recycling, and fines, he admitted poor education by the city leading up to the enforcement of rules and fines in August. The event was hosted by the Kiwanis Club of West Park and held at the Cretan Center.
Many residents who spoke were critical of the regulations and threats of fines sent by the city earlier this year. Current city regulations about garbage collection and disposal consist of nearly 20 ordinances dating back more than 30 years, with most fines for homeowners ranging between $100 and $350. Paul Alcantar, commissioner of the Cleveland Public Works Department’s Division of Waste, told the audience he is working to update the program.
PERSPECTIVE: View Cleveland’s legislation on waste collection and disposal
“It’s not your fault, we’re not telling you what you need to really put in it,” said Alcantar, speaking about blue recycling bins and the worst average contamination rate of recyclable waste he’s ever seen. “Whatever you put in it [blue recycling bin], 60 percent of it is trash, garbage,” he bluntly told one resident. “We don’t intend to treat you as a criminal,” he told another who was concerned about fines. “Our job is not to write tickets…[but] there is noncompliance.”
Alcantar said numbers he reviewed from last month showed $727,000 worth of citations, a number that made most in attendance gasp. Money collected from fines goes to the city’s general fund, which funds nearly half of the division’s $27.9 million budget. The division is budgeted to generate $15.9 million in revenue for 2018.
BY THE NUMBERS: View the 2018 budget for the Cleveland Division of Waste Collection
The purchase of garbage trucks that can only be loaded through the top has resulted in the end of yard waste collection in reusable bins, Alcantar said. When questions about leaf collection were raised, Alcantar and Councilmember Martin Keane, also in attendance, said much of that is the responsibility of another part of the city’s Department of Public Works.