A Solution for the Downtown Garbage Problem?

Dear Editor,

We attended the meeting at the Planning Department, where plans for the new streetscape were presented. Apparently, the idea of having “trash corrals” has caused some negative comment, and we would like to make a few observations about the trash issue downtown, based on our decades of experience as both landlords and business owners.

The trash corrals would certainly have their own set of problems, but they represent a huge step forward in that all restaurant/bar trash would now be in roll carts. The current situation, in which trash and food waste is placed on the curb in plastic bags, is the source of most of the complaints about trash downtown – they are unsightly, scattered along the sidewalk, and they easily break, spilling their contents onto the sidewalk and the gutter. Neither the sidewalks nor gutters are easily cleaned, so the waste ferments over time and produces the current untenable situation.

Some have suggested dealing with the cleanliness issue by blaming ACC for not keeping things cleaner, which has led to proposals such as buying a new cleaning machine. That will certainly help, but the issues of cleanliness and smell downtown are 99% caused by the bars and restaurants, and it is to them that we should look for a solution.

And the best possible solution would be if all establishments downtown stored their trash and waste internally until no more than 30 minutes before scheduled pickup, and then put it out on the street in front of their businesses in roll carts. No more plastic bags to break, and each establishment would have an incentive to keep their roll carts and surrounding area clean since they would be in front of their building.

When this has been suggested in the past, the response has been that many places cannot store their waste internally, but this is largely an excuse to do nothing - it's not logistically impossible, it's just a matter of will. Internal storage and curbside roll cart pickup would also encourage businesses to compact, possibly compost their waste in the long term. In the short term there would be some hardship as some businesses would have to reconfigure their current internal space for roll cart storage, and some might have to pay for additional pickups from Solid Waste until they accomplished that change.

Downtown Athens has become a destination for food, drink and entertainment, and in many ways we owe much to those establishments for making Athens so well-known nationally. But lets not lose sight of the fact that the filth and smell the current trash situation creates is also their responsibility. Our policy makers (ACC Mayor and Commission) need to step up and do the right thing and fix this problem once and for all by putting responsibility for the problem on those who cause it in the first place. It's not that difficult: set standards that are in the community's interest and then enforce the rules.

Thanks - Ed and Sue Wilde