Dayton has a backlog of 900 requests for trash containers

Hundreds of Dayton households are waiting for new trash containers because of delays and a backlog that goes back to mid-2019.

The city plans to change waste container vendors for the first time in 25 years because its orders have not been fulfilled in a timely manner, city officials say.

The city ordered 490 trash containers from Toter in October of last year, but they only arrived earlier this month, according to the city’s public works department.

“We just could not get comfortable with the continued delays,” said Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein. “There didn’t seem to be any movement on catching up on that.”

The city of Dayton has a backlog of about 900 green trash containers requested by residents who want them for the first time or who want to replace damaged or stolen containers, said Fred Stovall, Dayton’s director of public works.

About 55,000 properties in the city have waste containers, which are provided at no cost to residents and property owners, Stovall said.

The city ordered about 490 containers last fall from Toter, which cost about $28,850 in total, or $58.88 per container, he said.

But the containers were not delivered until March 3, city officials say.

In coming weeks, the Dayton City Commission is expected to vote on a new contract to make Rehig Pacific Company the city’s new waste-container supplier.

The city plans to order about 2,105 green trash containers, which are expected to be delivered in the last week of April, Stovall said.

Once the containers arrive, it will probably take about three weeks to get through the backlog, he said.

In the meantime, residents who do not have a container can bag up their trash and leave it at normal collection points, including at the edge of the alleys behind their properties or along the street curb out front.

City officials say containers will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis, and they hope to resolve the issue quickly.

“We are going to be working feverishly to catch up,” Dickstein said.

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