Unfortunately, there is no proposal to reject because the all-powerful authority on trash collection, Cliff Gillespie, Dallas’ director of sanitation services, does not need City Council approval to roll out the changes.
Gillespie has been in the position for two years and has been pushing for the end of alleyway trash services for most of his tenure. In June 2024, the sanitation department briefed the council on ending all alleyway trash services across the city. After community and council disapproval, the plan was scrapped. But Gillespie has pulled it from the bin and is set to end alleyway trash collection for 19,000 homes starting Jan. 19, 2026, and then another 7,000 on July 20, 2026.
The change will affect about 27% of customers receiving alleyway trash services. A map of affected alleys can be found on the city's website.
“It's been a fight before,” Libby Collet, author of the Change.org petition with more than 4,000 signatures as of 3 p.m. on Monday, said. “They backed off on it, but it sounds like now they're digging in and shoving it down our throats.”
Since the city announced its plans to end services, Collet has been spending her free time reading up on garbage trucks, becoming a little bit of an expert. The city uses rear-loading trucks to collect trash from alleys as well as side-loading trucks for curbside collection. The rear-loading trucks, which Collet says are the gold standard of dump trucks, require a driver and one, sometimes two, sanitation workers to manually load bins. Automated side-loading trucks only require a driver. Though cheaper for the city to operate, they are wider by nature of their mechanism.
In her research, Collet found other flaws with side-loaders, also called “one-arm bandits,” in the sanitation industry. She worries about the claw damaging street-parked cars, especially on smaller two-way roads. She also found that the sensor on the trucks can be sensitive, meaning once the truck’s capacity is hit, there’s no extra squishing and stomping to be done. If you have an unusually trash-y week, you’ll have to hold onto excess until the next week’s trash day.
“We've got so many big problems that are complicated to solve,” she said. “This is an easy one. This is a gimme. Don't create more problems to make us look like a big, ugly city.”
According to city reports from 2023, Dallas had 109 rear-loading trucks, costing the city $18 million, as reported by The Dallas Morning News. Running 92 side-loading trucks cost the city $11 million.
“They need smaller trucks,” Collet said. “They need to work within the existing structure of what we have and not change a structure that works really well. … So we need to clean up the alleys, get the proper equipment and not change something that isn't broken. “
Gillespie clarified via email that the city has not, emphasis on not, invested in trucks that are too big for the alleyways, citing 40-year-old federal regulations that require commercial vehicles to be between 96 and 102 inches. The city purchases new trucks annually, he explained. In the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the city purchased 25 trucks to replace old ones, adding no additional trucks to its fleet, 14 of which were side-loading.
“Dallas’ waste collection fleet evolved over time as equipment manufacturers began building to those new specifications to allow for greater capacity and efficiency,” he wrote. “Many older alleys in Dallas are only 8–9 feet wide and weren’t built to accommodate modern equipment. These narrow spaces pose safety risks for workers and result in recurring damage to fences, utility poles, gas meters and collection vehicles.”
Petitioners Are Pissed
Whether newer side-loading trash trucks will fit down narrow alleys or not, the inconvenience of moving to curbside trash collection for many residents is significant, Collet says. Destruction of property is a primary concern for most, but a few older homeowners pointed out they would be particularly hurt by this change.“At 91 years of age, I am not physically able to move my cans to the front of my house, and being a widow, I have no one to assist me,” wrote one petitioner.
To the city’s credit, there is an existing program called Helping Hands that offers customers with physical disabilities help moving their garbage and recycling bins at no additional cost. But many Dallasites have said that if the city invested in more trucks that fit within the alleys, complimentary valet trash services wouldn't be needed.
"I’m sorry this happened, but they need [to] find the money to purchase new trucks," wrote another petitioner. "This neighborhood area of Dallas was master planned around alleyways, our homes were literally built around them. It is the city’s job to maintain them, and to continue trash service in them like they have done for the past 65+ years."
Gillespie says he has heard the community complaints, but the pros outweigh the cons.
"We understand that many residents are frustrated by this transition," he wrote. "Change is difficult, especially when it affects long-standing routines. However, this step is necessary to improve safety for the men and women collecting waste on foot and riding on the back of collection trucks, enhance service reliability and better control long-term costs."
The “Reject Dallas Cancellation of Alleyway Trash Collection Proposal” petition has only been up for a week, but it continues to gain support hourly. Collet knows she has little power to stop Gillespie’s plan, but she can at least raise a little hell before it happens.
“I would hope to see the city of Dallas listen to its taxpayers and constituents,” she said. “Nobody's happy about this.”
