The City of Omaha understands the importance of having a clean environment. Omaha strives to take care of the environment through the various programs listed below. These programs follow the guidelines given by the Environment Protection Agency and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.
Collection FAQs - From Wasteline (November 2012)
A. No, the limit is still 5 containers.
A. Each crew picks up the waste from over 2,000 households per day. The 45 pound limit is a federal guideline to protect the workers from injury. They are very experienced and will give the benefit of the doubt to the resident unless it’s grossly overweight.
A. The weight limit on cans is 45 pounds. The containers will need to be less than 45 pounds to be collected next week. To avoid this situation in the future, we suggest using trash cans with lids or switching to bags instead.
A. Your next day of collection.
A. The contractor is not responsible for litter in the area prior to their arrival.
A. The contractor is not required to dig out trash that is stuck in the bottom of the can. It is not safe for the collector to reach into a trash can. To avoid this problem, you could use plastic bags for garbage and the special paper yardwaste bags.
A. Branches need to be securely bundled to avoid this. The crew is not responsible for picking up branches that are not bundled securely.
A. The City’s municipal code and our contract with Deffenbaugh prohibits the use of black bags, however, it is the discretion of the contractor to risk penalties at the landfill if unauthorized items have been discarded in a black bag.
Source: http://roads.nebraska.gov/media/2784/habitat-litter-poster.pdf
- Birds and animals get tangled in litter, such as plastic six-pack holders and fishing lines—and it can kill them.
- Cigarette butts and other trash can poison fish and birds.
- Aluminum cans take more than 500 years and plastics & Styrofoam up to a million years to decompose.
- The Nebraska Department of Roads spends more than $1.1 million each year cleaning litter from Nebraska’s roadsides.
- The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and Nebraska Game and Parks spends more than $1 million a year to clean litter and trash from conservation areas and other locations throughout the state.