Talking trash: Rochester Park Board discusses plan to continue 'pack-in, pack-out' policy

Rochester Parks and Recreation plans to continue with its pack-in, pack-out trash policy indefinitely, despite concerns from some Park Board members about how the strategy has been received by the public.

The policy, which was first introduced in April 2020 as a way of reducing costs amid a budget crunch, resulted in the removal of trash receptacles from neighborhood parks. Additionally, some dumpsters near shelters were replaced with smaller baskets. Park officials say the goal was, in part, to cut down on the amount of outside waste being dumped into park trash bins.

“When we had all of our dumpsters out there, anybody who redid their carpet, anybody who had their TV break — those [items] were ending up in our dumpsters,” said Michael Schaber, park operations manager, during a presentation to the Park Board on Tuesday.

Schaber added that the objective has never been to take away all trash cans across the park system, but to reduce the amount of receptacles and to be more strategic about where they are located; for instance, concentrating bins at larger regional parks, shelters, trail heads, and sports complexes.

He estimated the new policy has cut the department’s trash costs in half, from $100,000 pre-pandemic to about $45,000 this past year. Those costs do not include staff time for collecting waste, which prior to last year equated to 130 hours of labor during peak months.

Looking ahead, Schaber said the goal is to further educate the public about the policy with new signage and other communication.

“I feel that the program did gain some traction once people were aware of it,” said Schaber. “So, I think we need to continue that program, and I just see it getting more and more adhered to in the future.”

The department’s plan, however, was met with some skepticism from the Park Board. Commissioner Angela Gupta said while she understood the need to trim costs early in 2020, she was concerned with the decision to continue on with the policy post-pandemic, noting the amount of negative feedback the board has received from the community.

“We have talked a lot about how engagement is really important to us, and it seems the least popular thing that happened last year related to the parks was this trash policy that changed,” said Gupta.

Commissioner Chad Ramake also raised concerns about punishing the entire community for the mistakes of a small group of people. He asked that the department be thoughtful in how it goes about implementing the policy, and to ensure to the decisions are clearly communicated.

“The lack of clarity around it last year was really tough because I did see a lot of trash out on the bike trails,” said Ramake, who suggested the department create an online map of where receptacles are located.

In responses to the board’s concerns, park staff said they will continue to monitor the situation and are open to addressing specific issues as they arise. Still, they remain optimistic that buy-in to the policy will continue to grow, allowing the department to free up resources for other initiatives.

“When we started it, we knew it was going to be an uphill climb,” Schaber told the board. “Just because people normally get in a habit of, ‘I walk this trail or I walk past my neighbor’s house and I cut through the park and I put my trash here’ — that sort of thing. But a lot of it is just a learned behavior that we [are starting to] see a change of.”

Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.