Wellington will soon become the first municipality in Palm Beach County to have garbage trucks that run on clean-burning compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than diesel fuel.
“Waste Management is working in partnership with Wellington regarding our trash and recycling,” Wellington Chief Financial Officer Tanya Quickel told the Town-Crier this week. “Trash will now be picked up with trucks that use compressed natural gas. This is important because it will allow a much cleaner alternative to gasoline and diesel fuel.”
Quickel said the change is in keeping with Wellington’s designation as a Gold Certified Green Local Government.
“It’s an important step in our commitment to environmental sustainability,” she said. “Wellington is the first municipality in Palm Beach County to take advantage of this green technology in conjunction with Waste Management.”
Quickel said CNG-powered trucks have important environmental advantages.
“Each CNG-powered truck saves, on average, 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel from being used per year, and it reduces annual greenhouse gas emissions by 22 metric tons. That’s per truck, each one,” Quickel explained. “The other benefit is they are very quiet, much more so than trucks fueled by diesel.”
Eleven CNG trucks will serve Wellington, with each truck reaching 147 houses per hour, ensuring that trash pick-up will remain quick and efficient.
“That will keep us on our schedule,” Quickel said.
ABOVE: Waste Management will soon be using trucks powered by compressed natural gas.
One of the problems in Wellington is that new homeowners, renters and shockingly, even long time Wellington residents, are now bypassing their yard waste containers and just throwing their yard waste on the ground anytime they wish to do so.
Lazy residents can’t seem to plunk a couple of palm fronds IN their yard waste can, and now just find it simpler to throw it on the ground in their front yards (many times right AFTER scheduled pick-up, where it will sit until the next scheduled yard waste pickup).
Code Enforcement needs to step up and remind residents about proper yard waste disposal and should send out a ‘Welcome New Neighbor Letter’ to new residents and renters about placing yard waste and other debris out the day BEFORE trash pickup, not whenever they choose to do so.
Next time you drive around Wellington, take notice how yard waste and debris sit for a week in the front yards and in swales, giving a trashy look to the area.
Why have a yard waste container, if too many are now not even using the containers and just dump their few fronds in their front yard. The pickup claw and the trash truck damages the ground and has caused holes in swales. Take a gander at the ‘fill in gravel’ that has occurred in Paddock Park I from the claw damaging the ground.
Get busy Code Enforcement and get busy Wellington Council with sending out ‘Welcome to Wellingotn’ letters with reminders of what keeps Wellington a well kept community.
The new owners and renters do not know the rules in Wellington. The older owners and renters see others getting away with violations, so they now do the same. Remind them about cutting down trees, changing colors of their abode, keeping bushes and grass trim and keeping yard debris, large items off swales and the roadway until the day before pickup.