Austin leaders took an initial step toward regulating disruptive dumpster collections that have been reported as a persistent nuisance by residents citywide.
Current situation
Today, dumpster pickups aren't covered by local regulations that limit loud noises, and that activity can take place at all hours of the day. For residents who live near commercial areas with multiple dumpsters, collections can prove to be an annoyance, especially during late-night hours.
For example, Old West Austin resident Tamara Aronstein recently told City Council members that her apartment is located next to dumpsters that are typically emptied in an "incredibly loud" process every Wednesday between 1-3 a.m.
“It wakes our entire family every single week, and my four-and-a-half-year-old goes to bed on Tuesday saying it’s the worst night because of the truck that comes and how loud it is," she testified in May. "Every Austin resident should be able to sleep without being woken up by excessively loud dumpster activity."
Multiple council offices have received complaints about collection activities, leading officials to launch a process this spring aimed at banning dumpster pickups at "unreasonable hours" near homes and apartments. Council member Mike Siegel, who sponsored the proposal, said he's fielded concerns about noisy trash pickups since coming into office and is seeking to provide residents some relief.
“Our goal is to really help out these constituents that live near commercial properties and are being woken up in the middle of the night by haulers, who under our code are allowed to pick up," he said in an interview. "We're hoping that city staff can find a solution to this problem.”
Zooming in
Siegel said current rules permit collections during all hours, allowing garbage trucks to schedule around busier times of day and avoid conflicts with other activities like school bus pickups. However, he noted that disruptions can compound at commercial properties where multiple businesses each have a dumpster that's addressed at a different time. He cited impacts on one of his constituents living near a property where various retail, service station and restaurant dumpsters are all cleared separately.
"This poor constituent of mine is reporting being woken up three or four times a week, every week of her life, at 3 or 4 in the morning because Texas Disposal Systems picks up one day, and a different hauler picks up a different day," he said. "Even if the laundromat contacts their hauler to try to change the schedule, the other three are still getting picked up. It's one of these things that's very elusive from a problem-solving point of view.”
Some local nuisance issues can be addressed by Austin Code, but Siegel said overnight hours are outside the code department's jurisdiction. His office was also referred to the Austin Police Department, but it remains short-staffed and can't prioritize relatively minor noise complaints on a regular basis—especially as collections only last for a short time, likely before any officers could respond.
Siegel said his office attempted to negotiate with individual property owners and trash haulers to work out less impactful schedules for collections. While some improvements were secured in specific situations, he said a case-by-case approach "wasn't durable" to solve the persistent problem, prompting his proposal for citywide change.
The approach
Siegel's resolution to limit dumpster collection activity was approved May 28. The measure calls for city staff to consider "reasonable limits" for operating hours, including late-night and early-morning restrictions. A required minimum distance between dumpsters and residences could be set as well.
The review will also cover typical noise levels from dumpster collections, potential traffic impacts and comparable policies in other cities that Siegel said could serve as models for Austin. Based on that work, recommended updates to Austin's dumpster collection policies will be presented for approval before the end of the year.
"We might have to look at stricter regulations, or a more interactive process that when you get your hauling license from Austin Resource Recovery, you commit to being more responsive to constituent concerns," Siegel said. "We're not trying to prescribe exactly how to alleviate the situation, but we know that it's a problem that my constituents want us to fix.”
In Dallas, garbage pickups are prohibited from 10 p.m.-7 a.m. and within 300 feet of a residence. Fort Worth has an identical distance requirement and bans collections from 11 p.m.-6 a.m.
In San Antonio, all residential trash collection outside the downtown area is banned from 10 p.m.-7 a.m. within 200 feet of homes or apartments. Commercial collections are permitted in those times and locations—unless affected residents complain, in which case the same limits apply.
