Bountiful mayor, streets director outline curbside rules, special pickups and recycling limits

Mayor Kendalyn Harris and Charles Benson, Bountiful’s streets department director, told residents about curbside garbage and recycling rules and upcoming special collection events during a brief public information segment.

Charles Benson said crews leave the shop at 7 a.m. and advised that “you need to have your cans out by 7 o'clock in the morning,” adding that residents may put cans out the night before to ensure pickup. He said crews need about 4 feet of clearance around each can so workers can safely operate the mechanical arms: “away from a car, away from a mailbox, away from a fire hydrant.”

Benson warned that certain items should not be placed in curbside garbage cans, citing safety and equipment limits. “In the garbage cans, no hot ashes … Rocks, dirt, saw, bricks, other large construction, demolition materials,” he said, describing the curbside service as intended for household waste. He also noted that government regulations limit what the truck arms can lift and spoke a numeric figure in the transcript that was not clearly recorded.

The city offers extra containers on request for an additional fee, Benson said: residents may “ask for it and you just pay that second fee for that second can.” He described a weight/arm-lift constraint on trucks tied to regulations and emphasized that drivers cannot reasonably exit their trucks at every residence to manually handle extra bags or improperly placed cans.

Benson described Bountiful’s special cleanups and hazardous-waste collection: the city holds a special cleanup in April and October (generally the first full week of those months) that will pick up green waste (trimmed to about 5-foot lengths), small appliances and furniture; a hazardous-waste event is held in October, typically the Saturday after cleanup week, and hazardous materials can also be taken year-round to the contractor Veolia’s facility. “Our contractor, Veolia … can take it year round at their facility,” he said.

On recycling, Benson said residents should not bag recyclables or include “stretchy” plastics such as grocery bags because they interfere with sorting equipment. He cautioned that items marked with recycling logos are not necessarily accepted by Bountiful’s recycling market: “the recyclable materials have to have a market for them to go to. Otherwise, they're not usable.” He said glass is not accepted in curbside recycling and can contaminate loads; the city said a separate vendor collects glass monthly.

Benson gave figures for the previous fiscal year: he said the city collected 17,337 tons of material and made 2,561 trips to the landfill during fiscal 2023, and that curbside recycling diverted about 10% of Bountiful’s waste stream from the landfill in that year. Harris thanked street crews for their work in serving residents.

Practical takeaways Benson emphasized: have cans at the curb by 7 a.m., keep lids closed, provide about 4 feet of clearance, avoid bagging recyclables, and request a second can if needed (for a fee). For materials not suitable for curbside pickup — large construction debris, hot ashes or hazardous waste — use the special cleanup windows, the hazardous-waste event, or Veolia’s facility.

Benson’s statements and the figures quoted above are drawn directly from the public information segment; where numeric detail in the audio was unclear, the article notes that ambiguity rather than restating an uncertain figure as fact.