THE TRASH WORKERS strike has left people with garbage but no place to put it. The City of Huntington Beach in developing a plan to cope. Note: The photo above was NOT taken in Huntington Beach or Orange County (Flickr/Kristina Hoespenn)

In response to the continuing labor-management dispute at Republic Services, the City of Huntington Beach has been working to develop a trash disruption mitigation response plan for deployment later this week, which is aimed at ensuring the continuity of trash pick-up services.

Components of the plan will be reviewed by the City Council at a special meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 14, at 4 p.m., when a declaration of a local emergency will be considered in order to facilitate implementation of Huntington Beach’s proposed program.

The need to develop a trash disruption mitigation response plan has been driven by the fact that Republic Services has been unable to coordinate reliable and ongoing trash collection services. Further, while the city has continued in its efforts to obtain accurate and timely updates, we have only been able to receive limited information.

Given the circumstances surrounding this matter, the City is working on the development of a plan to resume regular weekly trash pick-up services by this coming weekend (Dec. 18 and 19). Details related to that plan are being finalized, and additional information will be released by the city on Wednesday, Dec. 15.

From a resident and business perspective, key instructions related to trash pick-up for the rest of this week include the following:

• Republic has asked that residents and businesses continue to place your trash bins out on your regularly scheduled pick-up day but to expect service delays.
• If collection does not happen on your regularly scheduled pick-up day, please leave your bins out along the curb until the trash is picked up.
• Of note, unlike typical collection days where separate vehicles will pick-up refuse, recycling, and green waste, given the current situation, only one truck will collect trash from all bins utilizing a co-mingled trash collection process.
• As bins are left out to await trash service pick up, street sweeping will continue. However, to alleviate further inconveniences, the City will not issue street sweeping citations beginning Dec. 13 and tentatively scheduled to resume Dec. 27.

If you received a street sweeping citation on Dec. 13, the city’s street sweeping contractor has since dismissed it and no further action will be required.

For those that are in dire need of trash disposal services, the City will open five trash drop-off locations for Huntington Beach resident and business use. The drop off locations will be open and staffed by the City from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday for the foreseeable future, at the following locations beginning tomorrow:

1. Edison Park and Community Center: 21377 Magnolia St.
2. Greer Park (North): 6900 West McFadden Ave.
3. Murdy Park and Community Center: 7000 Norma Drive
4. Public Works Yard: 17371 Gothard St.
5. Meadowlark Golf Club: 16782 Graham St.

As this process unfolds and through the duration of the current labor strike, the City will work to ensure that residents are not charged for collection service that was not performed.

For the latest updates, please visit www.SurfCityBreak.com .