Lately,we have been sending out a lot of Warnings to properties that place their trash bags out the night before trash pickup days. To some, this seems rather innocuous. But in the grand scheme of things, it merely invites critters to tear open these trash bags and scatter thrash everywhere. This is why we do not want trash sitting out over night. This is also a rule of the HOA.
The forms we send out also tell residents that they can put trash out the night before ONLY if it is in a tightly lidded non-metallic trash can. This does not mean you can put one or two bags in the trash can and then surround it with 10 more plastic trash bags. All bags must be inside the trash can, or you can set these bags out in the morning.
It is a big deal when we have to stop and gather up the scattered trash when people do not follow the rules. It is also a health and safety hazard, something for which we can issue fines without notice.
Below is what the City of Grand Prairie has posted on the Nextdoor website: (emphasis added by me)
Keep Wildlife in the Wild
It’s almost spring, which means wildlife might start appearing near your home. Many types of wildlife are attracted to our yards because food is plentiful and easy to obtain. Being aware of your potential contribution to this environment helps reduce nuisance animal incidents in your area.
• Avoid feeding wild animals, including birds. Birdseed attracts rats and other rodents, a known food source for predators like coyotes.
• Keep your pets inside and under your control at all times. An animal allowed to roam off-leash, even in your front yard, presents an easy meal for a predator.
• Secure your trash and trash cans. Don’t place trash outside overnight or the day before pickup. Keep your garbage in your garage or in a secure trash can (not plastic bags) until the morning of pickup.
• Clean your property to remove overgrowth and underbrush. This helps eliminate nesting or denning sites for wildlife.
• Pick up any fruits or vegetables at ground level; various wild animals enjoy these types of food.
You can find more useful tips and procedures on the Animal Services website: http://bit.ly/GP_Wildlife
I think it’s interesting to receive these violation notices that do not include a specific time(s) to put out the trash the morning of trash days. Is it between 5:00 am and 7:00 am? Is it between 3 am and 5 am? Who knows because we haven’t been told. Also, sometimes the trash gets picked up before 8 am. How is that fair?
These notices have always stated to place trash out on the morning of pickup days. According to Merriam-Webster, “morning” is defined as: the time from sunrise to noon. So, put your trash out between 6 and 7AM on the morning of trash pickup days. We will post on this website the holiday trash schedule if trash days fall on an observed holiday.
The reason we do not like trash left out over-night is rather obvious. It attracts critters, and we do have a lot of semi-feral cats wandering around and breaking into trash bags that are out over night. We also have woods on both side of the property with raccoons, opossums, skunks, coyotes and other critters that come out over night.
These notices also state that if you do want to put out your trash the night prior to trash pickup days you must put tied trash bags into a trash can with a secured lid. This has been around for many years. ALL tied trash nags must be in the trash can, not piled around it. We see that fairly often. The reason I know this is I ride with the guys every trash day, and I drive the entire property the night before trash days.
Our crew goes to work at 7:30AM and we start picking up trash a little bit later, after we hook up the trailer to the HOA truck. Part of the crew rides with the truck, usually on the West side, and part of the crew picks up trash on the Gators on the East side. This is so we can get trash pickup over with as soon as possible. We are now into the 2018 painting schedule, plus we are about to start mowing once the grounds dry out.
We average between 3 to 4 tons of trash every trash day, so you can imagine we want to get that over with as soon as possible so we can move onto other necessary maintenance tasks.