Dumpster-Shuffle on Marietta Lot

The city of Maplewood spent $395,000 to increase the number of parking spots on the Marietta lot, and that was just the start.

This summer and fall the city will spend $175,000 more for lighting, landscaping and .

Design elements that could beautify but boost project costs were discussed at a Maplewood City Council . One of those was centralizing dumpsters.

At last week's meeting, the council voted for Allied Waste to pick up trash and recycling for the businesses that use the lot, and for Blue Skies Recycling to provide “valet composting service” for the restaurants.

Each has had its own contract for pickup. Now, as those contracts run out, the businesses will go with Allied. The city will pay the bill and the businesses will reimburse the city.

Public Works Director Anthony Traxler said the cost isn’t set; it will vary with how much Allied picks up from each business. He said the switch will save businesses money on the service.

Another result will be a reduction in the number of dumpsters. A corral was built at the west end, and another is on the way for the east end, to centralize and organize the pickup.

“There will be fewer dumpsters that need to be picked up, but you’ll still have few trucks rolling through that parking lot at different hours of the day,” he said.

It will be an improvement. There will be more accountability with haulers.

“Last week a resident called me, there was a trash pickup at 3 a.m. It’s difficult to figure out who that was, when you have eight or nine different haulers,” he said. “It wakes everybody up.”

The centralization will also open up traffic circulation around the lot.

Restaurants that use the composting service will have a 65-gallon container they’ll keep in their business. The service will pick up the containers and leave a clean one. About seven or eight restaurants will use it.

“Valet composting service” means the left-over food scraps will be picked up right at the business’s back door.

“In the old days, we’d put it in metal containers and the pig farmers would come by and pick it up,” City Manager Marty Corcoran said.