All over LH are scenes like this: missing trash can lids.
Missing the lid on your city-issued rolling trash can? You’re not alone.
Drive around Lake Highlands on trash pickup day and you’ll see that plenty of your neighbors are going topless, too. And the bins aren’t just stinky eyesores.
“With mosquito season upon us, we don’t need the trash cans becoming a breeding ground for those nasty creatures,” says Gwen Crain, a resident of White Rock Valley.
The City of Dallas says LH isn’t the only neighborhood dealing with aging and damaged. “The way they’re handled or just general wear-and-tear” accounts for the loss of most lids according to the 311 operator who helped me. If yours needs fixing, you can call 311 or visit dallascityhall.com here to report your broken “Garbage Roll Cart-Residential.” If they can repair the lid, they will; if they can’t, they’ll replace the entire unit. You can also go here to install the City’s 311 app to your phone. (When I called, I punched buttons on the menu until I made it to Sanitation, then I got stuck. I finally had to hit “0” to get an operator, who was grand. FYI.)
Oh, and, Gordon Cathey shares this tip.
“The guys who pick up the garbage in my neighborhood were, for a long time, leaving the lids open after they emptied the carts.” [The trash is emptied manually in his Merriman Park/University Manor neighborhood, not by power equipment.] “The crew that worked the [blue] recyclable carts always left them covered and back in place, showing that it could be done on this route.”
“I was out of town for about two weeks and returned to find several inches of water standing in my trash cart. I complained to 311, and the crew started re-covering the carts, just as the blue-cart crew had always done.”
Squeaky wheel gets the closure, I guess.
Crain has another idea.
“You can also drill holes in the bottom of the trash cans so that water can drain out.”
Advocate readers, sharp as tacks.
Either because they’re newer or because they’re handled differently, most recycling lids remain intact.
