Trash Can Cleaning in Madison, AL

Three services, three operators, and the city runs none of them

This trips up nearly everyone who moves here. Madison is a city of more than 64,000 people that does not operate its own garbage collection. The city’s own page states it plainly: “Garbage service is provided by Madison County Sanitation every Thursday.”

Yard debris and large items are separate. The city says “the disposal of trash, which consists of yard debris and large items, is currently contracted out to Republic Services by the city.” Recycling is separate again, run by the Recycling Alliance of North Alabama, a division of Huntsville’s Solid Waste Disposal Authority.

Three containers, three schedules, three phone numbers. None of them includes cleaning the container.

The 6:00 a.m. rule is for yard debris, not your garbage cart

The city’s Public Works guidance is specific: “All waste must be placed at the curbside or along the edge of the roadway by 6:00 a.m. on your scheduled collection day,” with Republic collecting up to five cubic yards per household per week.

That rule governs the yard debris and bulk pile. It is not the rule for the roll cart, because the roll cart is the county’s service, not the city’s. We checked the City of Madison Code of Ordinances directly and it contains no residential garbage cart rules at all: the only receptacle section on the books, § 24-11, is about unattended donation bins. The absence is the point. The city writes rules for what the city runs.

Which county you live in changes your bill

About one in five Madison residents lives on the Limestone County side of the city. It is not a technicality. Huntsville Utilities bills the Madison County portion and Athens Utilities bills the Limestone County portion, and recycling service from RANA is offered free to single family homes on both sides.

Neighborhoods on the western and northwestern edge, out toward Clift’s Cove and the Greenbrier corridor, are the ones most likely to be on the Limestone side. If you are not sure which you are, your electric bill will tell you.

Why the summer does the damage

Those figures are NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for Huntsville International Airport, the nearest full reporting station. A dew point near 70°F is what most people call oppressive, and it is close to ideal for bacteria and flies inside a closed cart with food residue in the bottom.

Now look at that last number again. The recycling cart goes a full month between pickups. Rinsed-but-not-really-rinsed containers sit in it the entire time, through a Madison July. It is the cart people forget about and the one that has gone furthest by the time they finally look.

A city that keeps growing

Madison has added a third more people since 2010 and now sits at 64,029. Median household income is $118,132 and the median home value is $327,100, with 64 percent of adults holding a bachelor’s degree or higher.

That growth is visible in the subdivision names on the city’s own street listings: Clift’s Cove, Heritage Hills, Bradford Farms, Town Madison, Liberty Square, Breckenridge, Governors Estates, Compass Pointe, Nolan Hills, Stone Crest and Greenbrier Woods among many others.

What we do about it in Madison

We clean on site, at your house, on a schedule that fits your Thursday county pickup.

• Self-contained truckOur truck carries its own water and power, so nothing is connected to your house.
• 200°F washWashed inside and out with high pressure water heated to 200°F.
• Sanitized and deodorizedThen set back where it belongs, ready for the week.
• Nothing down your drivewayNo harsh chemicals, and the wastewater leaves with us rather than running down your driveway.

Your garbage cart came from the county. Your recycling cart came from RANA. We clean both, because keeping the container itself clean is the one job nobody in that arrangement has taken on.