15 Minute Reader - COVID-19 and Sanitation Workers: What We’re Doing to Help

By Finn Digman, Waste Reduction Education Coordinator for Asheville Greenworks

If you haven’t seen our 5-minute reader, COVID-19 and Sanitation Workers: What You Can Do To Help, use this link to the short post, where you can read a quick summary of actions you can take to protect our community’s sanitation employees. This post will discuss ways local sanitation agencies and Asheville GreenWorks are working together to safeguard our sanitation workers. 

While the COVID-19 pandemic affects everyone, essential workers bear a greater burden than most. They touch more surfaces, interact with more people, and generally leave their homes more than the rest of us. So, to say thanks for their hard work, we need to do our part in keeping them safe.

According to WasteDive, (a website devoted to sanitation-related topics) no cities besides New York have seen major outbreaks of COVID-19 in their sanitation workforce. To avoid a fate similar to New York City’s, we must take action.

Here’s how:

TRASH: 

Trash is the waste you bag up and put into your green City bin. The City of Asheville has their own sanitation department and collects trash using City trucks. Below is a list of what they’re doing to ensure their employees’ safety during the time of COVID-19.

• Modifying collection operations and equipment to limit the number of people per truck. Some operations require 3 people per truck. Operations are now limited to 2 people per truck (while wearing masks) with a follower truck, and some protective dividers have been installed in trucks to create an additional barrier between staff to prevent potential spread of COVID-19.
• Distributing masks and gloves: collection and processing workers are provided with the proper PPE to protect them from a variety of potential contaminants, including COVID-19.

Here’s what you can do to help your local City employees safe:

• Bag your trash and tie it closed. Loose garbage is less likely to make it where it needs to be: the landfill.
• Place your bins on the curb or in designated areas. Make sure there is sufficient space between bins; this allows the automated truck to do all the work without workers needing to leave the vehicle and manually readjust your bins.
• Sanitize your bins’ lids and handles before pick up. If workers do need to exit the vehicle and empty your bins, this creates an extra layer of protection against the virus. Frequent sanitation is a good habit to get into, generally. Disinfecting commonly touched surfaces is one of the CDC’s recommended ways for stopping the spread of any bacteria or virus, including the COVID-19 virus.
• Never put sharp objects directly in your bins. Needles, razors, knives, and broken glass all pose a risk to worker safety as your trash makes its way to the landfill. If you need to dispose of sharps, bring them to your local transfer station. Here’s a link to Buncombe County’s transfer station website where you can learn more about the services they provide.

Here’s what Asheville GreenWorks is doing to help keep City employees safe:

• Working with the City of Asheville to disseminate important messages about services they provide.
• Posting educational material on our website and social media so you can determine how to dispose of your waste, whatever it’s made of!
• Promoting Mind Your Plastic May, where you can learn waste reduction techniques to minimize the amount of trash you create.

RECYCLING:

The City of Asheville contracts with Curbie to collect our recycling. Curbie is continuing as normal with a heightened awareness. Here’s what they say about how their employees are staying safe during the time of COVID-19.

• Wearing gloves and masks and sanitizing their hands often to minimize risk.
• Assuming all surfaces are contaminated with COVID-19. This includes waste, cart handles, truck bodies, and door handles.
  
  

Here’s what you can do to help your local Curbie employees stay safe:

• Be considerate: do not place anything in the bin that you assume could be contaminated with COVID-19.
• Do not bag your recycling. Curbie employees must open these bags to sort your recycling. Plus, plastic bags contaminate the recycling stream and get caught in machinery.
• Never recycle medical waste of any kind. Gloves, masks, needles, and the like are never recyclable and medical waste poses a risk to Curbie employees.
• Recycle right! Follow this link for a complete list of Curbie’s accepted recyclables. 
• When in doubt, throw it out. Wishful recyclers tend to contaminate the recycling stream with things like aluminum foil and plastic clamshells. Recycling things you wish were recyclable slows down the process and costs Curbie unnecessary expenses.
• Treat your blue City recycling bins the same as your green City trash bins; keep them in designated pick up areas only on your day, and sanitize them frequently. 
  
  

Here’s how Asheville Greenworks is helping Curbie employees:

• Sharing Recycle Right information on our website and social media. Click this link to visit Asheville GreenWorks’ recycling information hub.
• Posting blogs and DIY videos to help you learn the power of refusing, reducing, and reusing before you ever think about recycling. Follow along with our Mind Your Plastic May campaign here and learn all about going plastic free.
• Creating virtual recycling presentations and workshops to help you learn the do’s and don'ts of recycling in our area.

COMPOSTING:

One compost collection service in Asheville, CompostNow, picks up kitchen waste, which is different from yard waste. These are the steps CompostNow is taking to ensure their employees’ health during the spread of COVID-19.

• Thoroughly cleaning compost bins and lids (this is a standard operating procedure, and one which CompostNow will continue in the future). 
• Stocking all offices, vehicles, and warehouses with hand sanitizer and gloves. They’re also taking measures like propping open facility doors to minimize contact throughout the day.
• Requiring employees to clean hands before and after entry into all CompostNow facilities.
• Providing appropriate PPE. Drivers who service community bins get gloves and face coverings, employees washing your compost bins receive full face-shields, and any team members who interact with other people throughout the day are provided with face masks. Employees are required to wear and frequently sanitize their PPE.
• Sanitizing all vehicle surfaces after completing each day’s routes and sanitizing frequently touched surfaces throughout the day. 
• Following guidelines from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), federal government, and other global health organizations to ensure their actions align with the latest COVID-19 information.
• Requiring all team members to document temperature and confirm they are symptom-free before beginning work.
• Limiting vehicle and facility occupancy to ensure social distancing procedures are followed. CompostNow is limiting interactions by splitting their teams into distinct, non-overlapping shifts. This action greatly decreases the probability of cross-contamination between teams.

Here’s what you can do to help your CompostNow employees safe:

• Disinfect your compost bins and lids before you set them out for collection. The CDC recommends you sanitize frequently touched surfaces as much as possible, and your compost bin is no exception.
• Skip your compost collection service if you are experiencing symptoms related to COVID-19. You can pause your service with CompostNow for 2 or more weeks and then resume it easily. Just follow this link.
• Secure all compost inside your bins with the lid completely closed. CompostNow will not collect compost set beside the bins. Collection drivers are careful to touch only the handle of your compost bins; please make this step easy and safe for them. You can request additional bins from CompostNow here.
• For renters: try to work with your landlord or property manager to minimize the surfaces collection drivers must touch to access your bins.
• Practice social distancing; stay at least 6 feet away from CompostNow employees as they service your bins. Many of us are experiencing the effects of isolation. Remember: you can wave to workers from your window. Social distancing only means physical distancing. 

Asheville GreenWorks is doing our part by:

• Publishing videos like our backyard composting workshop; these will help you be self-sufficient and build your household’s resiliency. Click this link to see our website’s current composting information.
• Continuing to provide you with detailed, up-to-date information on the state of waste management in the Asheville area. 

Help your community the most by practicing the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. 

By reducing the amount of packaging and products you take in, you expose yourself and essential workers to fewer daily interactions. Reusing your products keeps them in your home and away from sanitation workers. The age-old adage, “waste not, want not,” applies now more than ever. Follow Asheville GreenWorks to learn repurposing and upcycling techniques that will turn your trash into treasure. 

Finally, recycle right. This means recycling only “grocery-store” plastic containers, glass, and aluminum; check out Curbie’s website for a complete list of accepted recyclables. Remember: when in doubt, throw it out!

Our city’s sanitation staff are working full-time to keep Asheville clean and safe. Please do your part to protect essential workers by following guidelines, washing your hands frequently, and following the advice of the CDC. 

From all of us at Asheville Greenworks, stay safe out there. We’ll see you online!

This article is written for the residents of the City of Asheville in partnership with the City of Asheville.