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Draper solid waste manager warns residents against unsafe curbside disposal after truck fire
Summary
Sean Adams, Draper's solid waste manager, urged residents to avoid leaving hazardous or oversized items in curbside bins after showing photos of damaged mailboxes, overfilled cans and a solar generator that ignited inside a truck; the city offers a free landfill voucher for proper disposal.
Sean Adams, the solid waste manager for the city of Draper, urged residents to stop placing hazardous and oversized items in curbside bins, citing damage to equipment and a recent example in which a solar generator ignited inside a garbage truck.
Adams opened the presentation by identifying common problem items'furniture, shopping carts, large tree branches and metal poles'and said they should be taken to the landfill or handled through city disposal options rather than left at the curb. "These are items that we don't want in garbage trucks, period," Adams said.
The presentation included photographs showing couches left at the roadside and cans placed under tree branches; Adams said branches can be broken by the truck's lift arms and that bins placed too close to mailboxes have been struck and damaged by mechanical grabber arms. He also warned that overfilled or tightly tied bins can break the bin or "gum up" the truck's packer cylinders, making it unsafe or impractical for crews to empty them.
Adams described an incident in which "this actual solar generator caught fire while it was in the garbage truck," forcing crews to dump the load so firefighters could extinguish the blaze and then reload the truck with a backhoe, a process that disrupts service and increases risk to workers.
He said other items such as propane tanks and some appliances pose similar ignition or compaction hazards and should not be placed in curbside containers. Adams advised residents to place cans in the middle of cul-de-sacs where possible to allow trucks to maneuver without excessive backing and to avoid stacking refuse above the lid, which can lead to bags falling out and litter.
The city will not empty bins that cannot be safely serviced, Adams said, and he encouraged residents to follow procedures posted on the city's website. "You're welcome to come in and get a voucher to go to the dump," he said. Adams added that the voucher is provided as a free service for residents.
The presentation focused on operational safety and property protection; Adams recommended following the city's posted guidance and using the voucher program for bulky or potentially hazardous items to prevent equipment damage, service disruptions and fire risk.
