Neither snow, nor rain, nor wind stops the trash collectors

poly cart cu — High wind Monday afternoon knocked over many refuse polycarts in Hays, scattering some trash.

BY BECKY KISER
Hays Post

A lot of blue polycarts were blown over Monday in Hays because of the wind, but that didn’t stop the collection of refuse and recycling by city employees.

Solid Waste Superintendent Marvin Honas told Hays Post if a cart is blown over, the collection truck driver gets out, sets the cart upright, and then operates the trash-dumping process with the truck.

“Most of the time, the cart will blow over after dumping, but we do dump the cart,” Honas said.

“In my 14 years with the city of Hays, we called off collections once due to a severe thunder and lightning storm but resumed collections after the storm had passed. We completed the entire route that same day.”

About two years ago, a Friday refuse collection was stopped because of heavy snow; collection resumed Saturday. Since then, according to Honas, the trucks have been equipped with tire chains and the city also has purchased a back blade for the compost tractor to open alleys that drift shut.

As for picking up the blue recycling bags, “We have never missed a collection day, but we find that recycling bags get completely covered with snow and are not visible. They are collected the next week,” Honas said.