Why trash pickup may be late in Wichita

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Some people in the Wichita area may have noticed a delay in getting their trash picked up this week. It turns out that those large diesel garbage trucks don’t like the cold.

“With negative temperatures and the negative wind chill, diesel tries to gel up,” Mark Raccuglia, Air Capital Waste co-owner, said.

His company uses No. 1 diesel instead of No. 2 diesel when the temperature is in single digits or lower. He says he learned that lesson two years ago.

“We had a real cold spell, and we didn’t use the No. 1 diesel, and so we had a lot more problems,” he said. “This go-around, we used No. 1 diesel, and we haven’t had any trucks gel up.”

But other problems can also keep garbage trucks from making their regular rounds.

“Everything fluid-wise gets thick, so we’ll have more hydraulic issues. Lines that were perfectly fine will blow when the hydraulic fluid gets that thick. So, it’s always some little problems that we’ll have,” Raccuglia said. “We’ve survived by leaving the trucks running all night each night when it’s this cold.”

That is an expensive option. He says No. 1 diesel costs 70 to 80 cents more a gallon than No. 2 diesel.

Raccuglia thinks his company is getting caught up on any missed trash pickups.

“We had a few stops that we carried over from yesterday, about a thousand stops,” he said. “But for the most part, we’re right on, and if anything that doesn’t get picked up today, we’ll run it Saturday morning and get it finalized.”

Raccuglia says the customers have been very understanding, and his employees have been great.

“They’ve really been troupers and been here every day to get it done, so we’re really appreciative of them,” he said.