| 1906 |
The Department of Garbage and Refuse Collection was established when the contract with
a private collection company expired. All garbage, ashes and manure were collected by
hired teams of horses and buried in ditches on the English farm. |
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| 1910 |
The Municipal Reduction Plant was placed in operation. All garbage collected was
hauled to the unloading station located on Short Street, dumped into railroad cars, and
hauled to the plant by the Hocking Valley Railroad Company. |
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| 1911 |
The City began to purchase its own teams of horses to replace the hired teams; rubbish
collection was established. |
| 1912 |
The City Dog Pound was established and placed under control of this Department. |
| 1913 |
A special wagon was constructed for use on the hotel garbage route, doubling the
capacity of a regular wagon. |
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| 1916 |
Grease was sold to soap manufacturers; tankage was sold as a fertilizer; hides and
manure also were sold in an effort to offset operating costs. |
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| 1936 |
An incinerator was opened at Short Street. All burnable refuse was sent there; rubbish
was sent to the dump near Shadeville. |
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| 1947 |
The Department purchased 15 new garbage packer trucks. |
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| 1960 |
The Department name changed to the Division of Sanitation; uniforms were purchased for
its employees for the first time. |
| 1965 |
The Short Street incinerator was closed; the Third Avenue landfill opened for use and
was operated by the Division. |
| 1967 |
The Model landfill located on Jackson Pike was opened. |
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| 1973 |
The Division first began to provide front-loading box service to apartment buildings;
gradual replacement of rear-loading Dumpsters began in an effort to reduce operating costs
and provide for safer collection. |
| 1975 |
Three transfer/pulverized stations were opened at Alum Creek Drive, Morse Road and
Georgesville Road; a new routing system was implemented along with the first manual
side-loader in operation. |
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| 1978 |
The Division conducted an experiment of a semi-automated system of collection using 82
gallon (hurbie-curbie) carts. |
| 1980 |
The Division conducted an experiment of a fully automated 300-gallon collection system
in the Near East. |
| 1982 |
The Division discontinued collection of cubic yard containers from private businesses
and collection of dead animals from veterinarians and laboratories. |
| 1983 |
The Municipal Trash Burning Power Plant began operation under the Division of
Electricity. |
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| 1984 |
The Division name was changed to Division of Refuse Collection; the rotating collection
schedule was initiated to reduce overtime costs; the 1st Annual Refuse Collection Ball was
held; the first automated (300 gallon) routes were implemented. |
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| 1985 |
The model landfill was closed; the new Franklin County landfill opened on State Rt.
665; the first automated (90 gallon) route was implemented. |
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| 1986 |
The pulverizer operations were transferred to the Division of Electricity; the
Division introduced the color-coding system of curb and alley collection. |
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| 1987 |
The Customer Service Center was set up to centralize resident inquiries, complaints,
bulk scheduling and dead animal collection. |
| 1988 |
A recycling pilot project began to study the feasibility of instituting a voluntary
curbside recycling program; the conversion to front-load boxes was completed. |
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| 1991 |
A successful pilot Yard Waste Program was introduced to conserve landfill space and
improve operation of the solid waste reduction facility. Some 50 tons of leaves in
biodegradable paper bags were collected and composted. Columbus Clean Community, a Keep
America Beautiful affiliate, was integrated into the division in 1991. It provides for a
coordinated and focused approach to solid waste education, litter prevention and
recycling. The CCC-coordinated Glad Bag-A-Thon neighborhood cleanup collected 237.5 tons
of refuse. |
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| 1992 |
A successful pilot leaf composting program was introduced to conserve landfill space,
improve operation of the solid waste reduction facility, and to help prepare us for the
elimination of land filling yard waste due to House Bill # 592. A total of 1,217 tons were
collected through a joint effort by the Division of Refuse Collection, and Engineering and
Construction Division. |
| 1993 |
The pulverizer operations were transferred to the newly formed Solid
Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO). |
| 1994 |
The Division conducted a co-collection blue bag recycling project from June through
December 1993. Over eighty (80) tons of materials were collected and recycled during the
31 week program. An additional 159.5 tons of material was recycled through the NRT removal
system at the Mid-America Waste System's material recovery plant in Canal Winchester
during a period of 23 weeks of the program. The total material recovered represented a
9.24% diversion of waste from the pilot area. |
| 1995 |
Contracts were awarded to Rumpke Waste Systems to provide subscription recycling and
yard waste service and drop-off recycling to Columbus residents beginning September 1,
1994. At year-end, over 13,500 residents had subscribed for the curbside recycling
service. The division sponsored six household hazardous waste weekend collections during the six-month program
coordinated by SWACO. Residents from over 3,200 households in Columbus brought in over
213,000 pounds of household hazardous waste for proper disposal. |
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| 1997 |
Doris the Recyclasaurus
becomes the newest mascot of the Keep
Columbus Beautiful Program, promoting recycling and environmental
awareness.
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| 1998 |
German Village, the last neighborhood with manual refuse collection
service, is converted to containerized collection. Trucks
equipped with a tipper container lifting system are used for
collection.
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| 1999 |
The City offers collection of compactor boxes from apartments using
roll-off collection trucks. A pilot study is conducted to use
Radio Frequency Identifier chips on containers with scanners on the
trucks to gather collection information. |
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| 2000 |
The Mayor dedicates the Refuse Collection Memorial Walkway &
Gardens. Located at the division's Alum Creek location, the
walkway serves as a tribute to all retired and deceased Division of Refuse Collection employees. |
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| 2001 |
In
January of 2001, the City of Columbus created its first year-round Graffiti
Program to address the growing problem of graffiti on public property. |
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| 2002 |
The division purchased it's first single-operator vehicle used to
collect bulk items and large piles of debris. |
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| 2006 |
The Division was recognized by City Council for 100 years of
service. |
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| 2009 |
The Division puts its first Compressed Natural Gas Truck into service. |
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