Plum, Allied Waste to Review Potential Plan for Private Road Trash Collection

Plans are in place for the borough and its new waste collector—along with residents—to explore the possibility of trash and recyclable collection on private roads.

A representative of Allied Waste of Scottdale was on hand at Plum’s work session Wednesday night to address the private road residents’ concerns.

Their concerns, which they brought up at last month’s meeting, relate to the fact that they have to haul their waste long distances to the intersection of their private road and the nearest main road for pick up.  

Allied Waste began collection in Plum about a month ago.

In most cases, Mayor Richard Hrivnak said the previous collector, Waste Management, had picked up on the private roads.

“Our concern is that we don’t want to see any major change in their service level,” he said.

Allied Waste general manager David Smith said his company typically doesn’t send its drivers to private drives due to a number of issues.

Among those are the ability of Allied Waste’s trucks to turn around on private drives, the roads’ capacity for handling the weight and size of the trucks and the safety of Allied collectors and Plum residents—especially in the winter.

“You don’t want a garbage truck sliding on a road with kids out and with nobody responsible to clean that road,” Smith said.

However, he explained that in some cases his company does pick up on private roads.

“Typically, you have to have everyone on the block agree,” he said.

Allied Waste also charges additional costs, according to Smith, for private road collection and requires a waiver to be signed freeing the company from liability as well.

Council gave borough manager Michael Thomas the go ahead to review Plum’s private roads with Allied Waste.

Together, the borough and the waste collector will determine which residences are candidates for private road pickup and which still would need to haul their trash to the intersecting main road.

The joint effort also will include residents of the roads—should they choose to participate—at the request of a number of residents present at the meeting. The borough will notify them when the review will take place.

But while some residents might not be taking their trash too far for the long haul, Thomas indicated that they shouldn’t expect an answer overnight.

“There’s 40 streets, (and) they’re not going to be done in a day,” he said. “This is going to take a while.”