The City of Cape Girardeau currently uses traditional rear-load trash trucks. These are the kind of trucks with two guys … one drives, the other rides on the back, jumps off, and throws the trash in the truck. This traditional system averages 750-800 stops per day.

The Cape Girardeau Public Works Department is proposing that the city update its current trash collection system with the purchase of six new trucks with an automated robotic arm. In addition to the six new trucks, the city would also purchase 22,000 trash and recycling carts for residents. The new system will require fewer workers, and will average 1000 to 1200 stops per day.

Tim Grambling, director of Public Works, says that even though the automated system will use fewer workers per truck, Public Works will not have to lay off any employees. “We have a couple of open positions that have come about since we started discussing this, and we’re kind of holding those open right now, and not filling them. And we have a couple of other openings in some other divisions here in Public Works,” Grambling said. “So once we do decide to go to this, those extra employees that aren’t needed in solid waste anymore will be transferred to another division. Anybody that’s working now won’t lose their job because of this. They’ll be transferred to another position.”

The city’s initial investment would be about $2 million for the six trucks and 22,000 carts, which Grambling compares to taking out a loan. Payments, he says, will come through the savings that are generated from fewer salaries and other areas. “Worker’s comp claims. Just the premiums that we pay for worker’s comp will be less because, for a solid waste worker, those premiums are actually rated pretty high. They’re actually some of the highest that you can see. Once these employees go to just operators, that rate comes down quite a bit, so there’s a savings generated from that,” Grambling said.

The automated system won’t exactly look like a Transformer or WALL-E. Grambling adds that the new equipment will not be terribly difficult to operate, as they are basically just trucks with robotic arms that are operated by a joystick. In addition, the new system will be a far more efficient method of collecting solid waste. “These are going to be a little bit bigger. We’re going to be able to pick up an entire route without having to go dump at the transfer station in the middle of the day. That’s going to save a lot of miles. It will also save a lot of money for gas. And also, in terms of being better for the environment,” Grambling said.

Pam Sander, an administrative officer at the Public Works Department, finds that one of the biggest changes for Cape Girardeau residents will deal with recycling. “It would take us from source-separated to single-stream recycling,” Sander said from a Public Works Department tent at last week’s SEMO District Fair. “We’ll be able to put everything together in one container except for the glass.”

That means not separating the plastics, metals, papers, cardboard, and all that. However, there would no longer be curbside pickup for glass. Residents will have to take their glass to drop-off locations and there are proposals to have glass drop-offs at every Cape Girardeau fire station.

Sander says that other cities have seen a 33% increase in the amount of recycling they have received when converting over to single-stream systems. “So that’s real exciting in that that would take that amount out of the trash, which would lower the landfill fees, which would help us maintain current costs. So we’re real excited about that,” Sander said.

Steve Cook, the assistant public works director, feels safety is a huge benefit of the automated system. “The automated trucks, you don’t have somebody out in traffic, behind a truck, dodging cars and trucks, the citizens dodging them, which happens,” he said. “They’re inside a truck. They’re inside an enclosed area. It allows most people to extend their careers into their later years in that kind of job.”

The plan is still in the public input phase and the Cape Girardeau City Council will likely make a decision in October or November.

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