New Trash Pickup System Starts Monday

Separate pickup days will soon be a thing of the past for Vienna residents.

Vienna's Department of Public works begins a new solid waste program Monday that will allow Department of Public Works crews to collect trash, recycling and special pickups on the same day each week.

The plan, discussed by the Vienna Town Council in a series of public meetings this winter, divides the town into five "zones," one for each day of the week.

Mondays
North of Maple Avenue and West of Mill Street

Tuesdays
North of Maple Avenue and East of Mill Street
(Including Maple Avenue Residents)

Wednesdays
South of Maple Avanue and East of Park Street
(Including both sides of Park Street)

Thursdays
South of Maple Avenue, West of Park Street and North of Tapawingo Road
(Including both sides of Tapawingo Road)

Fridays
South of Tapawingo Road and West of Park Street

For maps of the zones, click on the images above.

On each zone's pickup day, two refuse packer trucks will collect household trash, along with lumber, fencing, non-metal furniture, rugs and any other items accepted by the Fairfax County I-66 Transfer Station.

Two additional refuse packer trucks will collect single-stream recycling, including large materials that can be recycled like appliance boxes, according to the plan, and anything else accepted by the Waste Management Recycling Station in Merrifield.

The knuckle-boom and tandem truck will collect all loose brush and limbs and yard waste and transport it to the Fairfax County I-66 Transfer Station, and the Sanitation Inspector will collect any metal left at the curb, which typically amounts to just 12 tons annually, according to town documents.

The plan eliminates the two free special pickups currently offered for each resident annually; DPW hopes residents will put out smaller piles more frequently in a single-stream process.

"I think the biggest concern is going to be how many times we have to borrow members from another crew to get this done," DPW employee John Wooden said. "That’s what we’re going to really keep track of."

Other things to know about the new program:

• The Town will collect itmes on all Town-observed holidays except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.  Trash will be picked up July 4th according to the new collection route map.  When it’s  one of the three holidays mentioned above, town crews will double up the following day and collect both the regular day’s route and the missed holiday collection.
• Everything the town has not collected in the past will continue to not be collected, for example - white goods.Revised Solid Waste Regulations Attached.
• The town will not pick up contractor waste.  If residents are having contractor work done on their home, their contractor is responsible for disposing of the waste generated from the job.