Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Salt Lake City is changing its garbage collection schedule for the first time since the 1980s.
- Most residents will have new pickup days starting Feb. 3, with one large exception.
- The changes aim to improve efficiency and align resources with peak workload times.
SALT LAKE CITY — Curbside garbage collection days across Utah's largest city are changing for the first time in decades.
Salt Lake City is changing the timing of its pickup day routes, which will ultimately affect when most residents have their garbage collected beginning on Feb. 3. City officials break the changes down by when people have their trash picked up now versus when it will be collected starting next month:
- Those who normally had their garbage collected on Monday will now have it collected on Tuesday.
- Those who normally had their garbage collected on Tuesday will now have it collected on Monday.
- Those who normally had their garbage collected on Wednesday will now have it collected on Friday.
- Those who normally had their garbage collected on Friday will now have it collected on Wednesday.
Those who have their trash collected on Thursday, which includes Liberty Wells through parts of the southwest side, will not be impacted by the impending changes. The changes will also not impact dumpsters at apartment buildings, other multifamily complexes and small businesses in the city.
No other route or service changes are planned other than for those who receive glass recycling service through Momentum Recycling, said Chris Bell, director of the city's waste and recycling division. Glass recycling customers will be directly contacted by the company about its new collection days.
Bell explained that the city's changes are all about efficiency. Workloads are typically the heaviest on Monday and Friday, which partially has to do with geography or material picked up on those days. It doesn't always line up with the personnel or equipment the city has on those days.
"By shifting these around, we're moving those heaviest days to the middle of the week when our resources are at their peak. It's an alignment of resources and work," he said, adding that it will allow the city to better adapt to disruptions tied to the weather, holidays or other events.
City officials are giving residents advanced notice because it's the biggest change in the schedule in some time. Bell said the current schedule was created in the late 1980s after collection trucks were automated.
The city plans to advertise the changes on social media before they go into effect. City officials say that they will also place a card with schedule change information on garbage containers beginning on Friday.
Residents who may miss their collection day could get an assist over the first few weeks, though. Since the city's yard waste and compost service is normally suspended between late January and early March, extra crews will be available in February to assess missed pickups or people who might not be able to wait an extra day or two for pickup, Bell said.
"The incremental cost for that will really be insignificant," he said.
