The City of Lubbock Sanitation Department receives multiple calls from citizens complaining about the illegal dumping of heavy, bulky items in alleyways and in open land fields around town.
“We get bulky call items daily. It varies, but on a daily basis we’re getting calls left and right,” James Piseno, fleet foreman of the Department of Sanitation, said.
To solve this growing problem, the Sanitation Department invested in a new truck what will manually pick up heavy items and take them to the proper city-managed waste fields. The truck is call the Grappler, and it is used for picking up bulky items throughout the city limits of Lubbock.
“It’s an education problem where people are not aware of the locations that we have,” Piseno said. “We have five recycle centers throughout the City of Lubbock, and it’s a free-of-charge location. We get the address from the caller, the truck is dispatched to the location to pick up the items. That’s when they operate the Grappler truck.”
The truck will roam the city and attend to dispatch calls when necessary, especially when the request is from an elderly or disabled citizen who cannot manage to lift the items or take them to the proper recycle locations.
“But a person that is able to, you know, take the items to a location, all they need to do is call in,” Piseno said. “If they need help to unload at the recycle center, we have a person always there manning the site to help them unload at the recycle center. All they have to do is show their driver’s license that they are citizens of Lubbock.”
But, even with the Grappler, city officials say they are in need of the help from the entire community, asking everyone to do their part and make use of the many free recycling centers around town.
If you do see that bulky trash items have been illegally dumped in your alleyways, call 311 to inform the proper officials so you can avoid receiving a citation and the Grappler can continue to be utilized to keep the City of Lubbock clean.
