Scenario # 1:

Scenario # 1: The Situation: You are a Solid Waste Supervisor for your local municipality and it is 3:00 p.m. on a Friday afternoon prior to a much awaited four-day weekend. Temperatures have been running above normal for about 1 ½ months now and the stress is beginning to show on your workforce, which is running at approximately 30% “no-show” rate. So, you have been filling in the workforce shortfalls by hiring day-labors from downtown, but still it is not enough. Your phone rings, one more time as it has done continuously since your arrival on the “early shift” this morning. You answer in your usual way, knowing that you are about to be blasted by yet another irate customer. As the customer on the other end of the phone starts in as you begin to take notes, shaking your head as you do so. The customer reports the following: “There is a 30 gallon garbage can sitting on the sidewalk in front of the customer’s business that has an extremely foul odor emanating from it. It has been there now for three days and it is beginning to smell quite ripe. This container, which is the customer’s office trash receptacle, contains last weeks standard office trash but also extensive human waste deposits left in the can from evidently numerous individuals of the local homeless population.” The customer is calling to complain that this morning during their regularly scheduled MSW pickup, your employees refused to take the contents of the can. The Questions: Did your employees conduct themselves properly by refusing to take the contents of the receptacle? Are the contents of the receptacle classified as Solid Waste? Are there any special handling considerations for this receptacle? How do you respond to the customer and what do you do next?