North Huntingdon residents get automated trash collection carts

North Huntingdon residents will start the year with new trash and recycling containers that will automate curbside collection — eliminating the need for a worker to ride the back of the truck and dump the trash from the containers.

Waste Management Corp. is delivering 26,000 trash and recycling collection carts to residential homes, to be used when the company begins garbage collection in January under a new contract. The company anticipates that all of the carts — 96-gallon cart for trash and 64-gallon blue cart for recycling — will be delivered by its vendor, Cascade Engineering of Grand Rapids, Mich., by Christmas week, said Erika Deyarmin Young, a Waste Management spokeswoman.

Stacks of thousands of the black and blue containers were being stored at the township’s public works property to be delivered to the residences in boxed trucks.

To automate the collection of the trash carts, Waste Management uses a truck with arms that a driver moves to clasp the container, then dump it into the truck. That is safer for the drivers, Waste Management said.

Waste Management wants residents to refrain from using the new trash and recycling containers for the rest of the month, while County Hauling of Rostraver collects the trash, Young said.

Senior citizens can get a discount on their collection for accepting a 64-gallon cart. Some North Huntingdon senior citizens have complained to township commissioners about having to haul their collection cart to the curb for collection.

Waste Management will be using a new fleet of compressed natural gas-fueled trucks in North Huntingdon. The hauler said it will reduce its fuel consumption by an average of 8,000 gallons for every diesel truck it replaces with a natural gas-powered vehicle.