eckington, bloomingdale - wednesday is trash day

Trash/Recycling Changes Begins Dec. 1; See Map for Details

The DC Department of Public Works announced today that about 45,000 households with once-a-week trash and recycling collections will have a new collection day as of December 1, 2008. The new collection schedule grows out of the need to streamline the collections process and will allow more efficient use of resources, including fuel. Residents in Wards 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, with once-a-week collection service, will be affected. Starting Saturday, November 8, DPW employees will post signs along the streets where the collections schedules are changing to alert residents to their new collections day.

“The District’s population has grown and shifted across neighborhoods since our last re-routing occurred more than 50 years ago,” said DPW Director William O. Howland, Jr. “We need to rebalance workloads among collections crews. This is the culmination of our re-routing program that began last year in Wards 1 and 2 where twice-a-week collections occur. Altogether, the re-routing affects about one-half of the 110,000 households with DPW trash and recycling collections services.”

Howland noted that in addition to the street signs, residents will receive a doorknocker, in English and Spanish that also will tell them their new collection day. “Many residents have had the same trash and recycling collection day all their lives,” said Howland, “so we are coming to their neighborhoods with the signs and doorknockers to make sure they know their new day.”

He added the following points:

• Trash and recycling containers should be placed at the point of collection between 8 pm the day before the collection day and no later than 6 am of the collection day. The containers should be removed from public space by 8 pm of the collection day.
• The re-routing will involve collections staff being assigned to new routes, so residents may see different DPW employees handling their collections.
• For questions, residents should call 311.
• Residents can visit http://dpw.dc.gov after November 14 to see if their street will be affected by the change.

DPW has a number of Maps and Schedules available for the public. New documents will be added periodically. Feel free to download and use any of the documents on this page.