Wilmington Will Collect City-Issued Trash Bins Only Beginning Next Week

April 8, 2022

Injury concerns for Wilmington’s sanitation employees have prompted an immediate change in the City’s trash collection policy. Beginning next Monday (for east side collections) and Tuesday (for west side collections), the City will only collect trash that is placed in a City-issued, industrial-strength trash container as pictured above. The City will NOT collect privately purchased trash bins with lift bars. These trash bins are sometimes labeled as Toters or Toter Carts. The non-regulation carts have become a serious liability resulting in more than a dozen injuries to Sanitation Department workers. While City-issued carts were engineered to prevent the metal crossbars or lift bars from becoming detached, the store-bought bins are not as sturdy and are dangerous.

In addition to collecting only City-issued trash bins, the City will also collect trash that is placed in privately purchased cans without a lift bar as long as the container is smaller than 35 gallons and weighs under 50 pounds.

“We usually give more notice when we make a change like this, but the potential for employee injury prevents that and we apologize,” said City Public Works Director Kelly Williams. The Commissioner said sanitation employees have already begun placing yellow-colored stickers (see the image of sticker below) on trash containers that will no longer be collected informing residents that the container is not acceptable. “I urge any resident who does not currently have a City-issued trash cart to call 311 or visit www.WilmingtonDE.gov/311 and we will deliver a free cart to you as quickly as possible,” Williams said the City has carts available that are as large as 95 gallons.

 

The Public Works Department distributed the gray-colored “SMART” trash bins to 21,000 residential properties throughout the City in early 2020 as part of Mayor Mike Purzycki’s ongoing Beautiful City Campaign. The new bins have helped to produce a cleaner City by reminding residents to follow the law and place trash in the bins and not on City streets.