City of Austin – Austin Resource Recovery

This drop off location closed last year. Now you have to haul your trash to the southeast location on Todd Ln near ³⁵⁄₇₁.

Unfortunately a person of horrible decision dumped a dead dog on an empty lot in our neighborhood. It was rather large (60 lb+) and wrapped in plastic and cradled by the roof of a dog house. Needless to say it was discovered by children riding bikes around the neighborhood. The parent of one of the children as well as myself had placed a call to 311 to find out how to have it peacefully removed to a new resting place. The next day a very nice young man came and made sure the dog was relocated. Alan (Limuel?) was kind in his interaction and understood the importance of rectifying the situation. The experience was handled in a professional manner and a timely manner as well.
One more reason to love our fair city.

Can anyone tell me whether I can fire the City of Austin trash collection and hire a private contractor? If so, can you give me the name of a private contractor? I am a new homeowner and have had dismal service so far from the City of Austin.

I’m surprised you guys have any likes at all. You have one of the most incompetent staff I have ever encountered.
On 4÷1÷14 one of your crews incorrectly picked up my trash + recycle bin and hauled them off. This wasn’t all that shocking as mistakes do happen. I live in Unit A and they were suppose to pick up Unit B’s bins. That day I called City of Austin Utilities to request replacements. Two days pass, it’s now 4÷3÷14 and I call again at which point I am assured they will be delivered by that day.
Fast forward to 4/14/14…I still have no bins. I call again and am told they will be delivered on my next trash day (4÷15÷14). Guess what, nope. 4÷15÷14 comes and goes… no bins.
At this point I call Austin Resource Recovery directly and am told a special delivery guy will personally bring my bins on 4÷16÷14 and I will be given credit on my bill.
Today I come home and NO BINS. It’s been 16 days, 5 phone calls and 0 bins! I am completely amazed at your failure. AMAZED. I’m actually impressed at how well you can NOT do your job.

CHECK YOUR BILL! They keep hitting me for an overfilled cart every month. This is the last straw – I was out of the country all Summer. Their excuse? «Sometimes they confuse the carts with your neighbors’ «. There are numbers on them. They must be scamming 1000s per week. At $ 8.66 a pop, that’s around $ 100/​year.

Service and professionalism when you do not expect it! I was bringing in my cans and the collectors passing back across the route stopped to ask me if I was happy with the service. Well, yes I am, actually. Thank you!

I’ve never lived anywhere where they charge this much for basic trash pickup, and limit you to such a small container. A huge ripoff.
The recycling service is even worse, masquerading as some grand green scheme but ultimately proving to be a limiting, frustrating experience as a homeowner.
While I applaud the intention of zero contributions to the landfill, the current every-​other-​week, curbside, single-​stream pickup approach just ain’t cutting it.
The recycling bin reaches capacity very quickly when you’re an active recycler who takes care to separate out cardboard, plastic, aluminum and glass from your garbage.
And the city’s draconian rules around overflow recycling are maddening, and very inconsistently applied. They won’t take anything in a store-​bought recycling bin. They instead insist you shove as much as you can in a cardboard box and that this get left by the curb next to the city-​supplied bin. This seems to work now and then, but then other weeks, the crew just does not take the cardboard box. When I call the city I get a different excuse every time.
I could stomach all of this (as I know it’s hard to run an operation like this) if there were some places I could take overflow recyclables myself and separate them and drop them off. But no, that would be too easy. The city operates no such facilities, and instead directs you to the well-​meaning but small and inconveniently located Ecology Action center downtown.
So people end up just giving up and throwing a bunch of stuff that could be recycled into the trash or making late-​night dumpster runs to get this stuff out of their garages.
I expected more from a city that toots its own horn and pats itself on the back so frequently and so loudly about being so progressive and open-​minded.

My neighborhood Sold Waste Service truck driver saved my life. I recently moved into a new home and I’m not used to my new garbage day. i heard the truck coming down my street the other morning and I panicked because I realized that I had not brought the trash can out to the street. I was just letting my cats out of the garage and into the utility room so I hurried them into the house, shut the door and ran out the side door of the house where we keep our garbage cans. Pretty quickly I realized that I locked myself out of the house: shoe-​less, bra-​less, phone-​less, and most importantly, key-​less. I ran out just as the driver approached my house and I waived at him and told him I had just locked myself out of my house. He was very nice and gave me his cell phone to use. I tried calling my husband but he was out of town and didn’t answer. I then called his brother but forgot that he was also out of town. He gave me the phone number of a friend who I called to get the name of a locksmith. Over ten minutes later, the patient solid waste service worker was still standing there patiently waiting for me to make my calls. He left to finish his route and left his phone with me to finish my calls. He came back later to pick it up. I don’t know what I would have done without this man’s kindness and generosity. So, to you, Mr. Sold Waste Service truck driver man, I salute you!!!

I have to say that garbage collectors are on the top of my list for great citizens in our world. What a thankless task to go around picking up heavy cans full of stinky stuff and riding along with it, day after day after day. And as far as I can tell, generally done with a willing smile and a friendly wave. Sure there have been a few times when I am thinking, couldn’t you just put the can back where it was placed for you and not just toss it off in any old direction, as in the end of my driveway so that when I am going off to work I have to get out of the car and move the can first. But I am guessing that has happened maybe once or twice that i can even remember. Instead, there they are week after week doing the dirty work of our city.
SO — the reason I am writing this review is that a couple of weeks ago, it was recycling week also and I had this enormous and I mean enormous, unwieldy box that a queen sized headboard had come in. It was really huge and I don’t even know how I got it to the curb. It definitely had the better of me. I propped it hopefully beside the recycling cart, hoping that they would take it because it was still a recyclable material even if it was huge. The next morning I heard the recycling truck out in front and it seemed like they took a longish time but when I looked out after they had gone, there was the big huge gigantic box. I was very disappointed and pretty worried about how to deal with it. Then along came the garbage men. They took a long time too, but you know what? They took it. It was a happy moment in my life. It just would have been really hard for me to deal with it if they hadn’t taken it. I was so appreciative that on my way to work, I tracked them down on their route and told them how much I appreciated it and that it was really great of them to go out of their way like that.
And as a note, as I drove a little further on, I just happened to see the recycling truck pulled over at a curb and the driver was sitting with his legs propped up, chatting on a cell phone!?!
Anyway — GIGANTIC THANKS to the City of Austin garbage collectors, whom I consider to be real men!!!

I really do appreciate that my garbage was picked up on President’s Day, but they must have had the «B Team» working because, our street look more trashed when I came home from work, than it did when I left in the morning.
Probably half the paper that was in my recycling bin was all over the yard and street, trash cans has been throw all over the place. Most were on their sides halfway in the street, my neighbor’s recycling bin was completely destroyed and left upside down in the middle of the road.
I’ll give them an extra star for working on the holiday, but I’m still mad that I had to pick up someone’s greasy Whataburger trash that was laying in my flower bed, cause you all know, it wasn’t mine!