EDITOR’S NOTE: After this story was released, we received a comment from the other garbage hauling service in Sheldon, Schwarz Sanitary Service. They wanted to make sure that people realized that their schedule for garbage pickup has not changed. They continue to pick up garbage at night, while the other service, De Kruif Disposal, picks up garbage in the morning.
Original story:
Sheldon, Iowa — Sheldon garbage containers will soon need to be the type that can be picked up by a robotic arm. And with new equipment comes new guidelines.
We had a chance to speak with Mark Gurtler, who owns De Kruif Disposal about things to keep in mind when using your new container. He says it works the best if you don’t overload the container. They would prefer that the lid closes. Not only does it prevent messes if the garbage falls on the ground, it keeps garbage from blowing around the neighborhood. Gurtler tells us where they need the cans to be so they can be picked up.
(as said:) “We would like them off the street, of course for the traffic. The arm on the truck is a 50-inch arm. So we want to be within 50 inches of the curb — as close to the street as possible. If you’ve got a sidewalk that goes right out to the street or even on the lawn right along the curb is perfect.”
He says the containers will be picked up from the street, not in alleys. We asked him when De Kruif Disposal customers should have their container out and ready to be picked up.
(as said:) “We’re going to do our routes different. Before we did residential and businesses all together. Now, we’re doing just the businesses at one time and the houses at one time so everybody should probably have them out by the street ready be picked up by 7:00 in the morning.”
EDITOR’s NOTE: Again, this is for De Kruif customers only. The pickup time for Schwarz customers remains the same.
According to Gurtler, the container should be placed with the lid opening toward the street, with the hinge and wheels closer to the house. If it’s really windy out, and you don’t have much garbage that week, you might think about waiting a week so that the container doesn’t blow over and cause a mess. But he says they’re pretty sturdy and it would take a pretty big gust to blow it over.
Gurtler tells us that “social distancing” also applies to garbage containers. He says you need to keep the container away from other containers, light poles, mailboxes, buildings, cars, and so forth so that the arm has room to pick up the can.
(As said:) “You want the can about three foot away from like a mailbox or telephone pole or if you have two cans you want them three feet apart just so there’s room to grab the cans.”
Gurtler says he has a bunch of containers on hand if you need one. If you have any questions, call your garbage hauler or the City of Sheldon. The deadline to start using the new containers is July 1st.
