New 3-cart trash system coming to South Lake Tahoe residents
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — New trash carts are coming to South Lake Tahoe residents and the rollout begins next week.
South Tahoe Refuse is rolling out a new 3-cart curbside collection program in hopes that it will help the environment.
"I'm interested to see what happens. I really don't think it's going to go very well. I know some people are very upset about it," Joe Correia, South Lake Tahoe resident, said.
He said he doesn't think the new carts will go over well, as he thinks they're too big and many people may not have the room.
South Tahoe Refuse plans to deliver three 95-gallon carts to its California customers starting Monday, August 26. Among the three carts, there will be:
- one animal-resistant cart (unless you have a bear box).
- one recycling cart.
- one cart for yard waste.
Correia said he doesn't think the new cart will be very animal-resistant.
"I've seen bears that have gone through front doors, the siding on a house to get to a garbage disposal, bears ripped through my garage two years ago to get to the garbage cans I keep in my garage," Correia said.
The South Tahoe Refuse website said, in part, "California's SB 1383 requires that customers separate their organic material from their trash and recycling and that color-coded containers are provided for each material," citing as a reason for the switch.
Chris Joseph with the League To Save Lake Tahoe said he thinks this could help keep Tahoe blue, as the animal-resistant carts will hopefully keep trash out of the street.
"Keep in mind, the Tahoe Basin acts like a big, huge granite funnel. So anything that is left on the trails, slopes, roads, neighborhoods, will eventually flush its way down into the lake," Joseph said.
The South Tahoe Refuse website also says the semi-automated collection system will be safer for employees.
Joseph said aside from environmental impacts, he hopes the new carts will encourage other good habits out of locals.
"With the new green sealable can that everybody is going to get, it could encourage people to do more defensible space work around their homes," Joseph said.
The website said once you receive your new carts, they will no longer service twist-top garbage cans.
They will only pick up garbage from the new animal-resistant carts or 32-gallon garbage cans placed in bear boxes.
This will also impact South Tahoe Refuse's Nevada customers but with different parameters.