Residents Left Holding Noses After Trash Day Foul-Up : Services: Recycling program gets off to a shaky start in Carson as many don’t get the word about new pickup schedule.

Scores of irate Carson residents have been holding their noses this week following a mix-up in trash collection days that left dozens of curbs lined with uncollected garbage.

As part of a new recycling program that began Monday, the city traded its twice-a-week general pickups in favor of one collection day for recyclables and another for regular trash.

The new collection days caught many residents by surprise. In some cases, mailers from the city about the program did not arrive until after the changes had taken effect. Consequently, some trash has been sitting by the curb for up to two days.

“Something stinks in all this and it’s not the trash,” resident Ruben Negrete told the City Council at its meeting Tuesday night.

City officials blamed the post office.

The notices were mailed Oct. 21, said City Administrator Larry Olson. “My understanding is that . . . it is up to the carrier to deliver those notices,” Olson said. “We don’t have any control over it.”

Council members and City Hall have been flooded with calls from residents confused about the changes. That confusion was evident Wednesday in a drive through Carson neighborhoods where uncollected trash sat alongside bright orange recycling tubs.

“We thought that we had adequately explained it,” Olson said. “It looks like, of the 18,000 residents who are involved, the overwhelming majority know what to do.”

Under the new recycling program, the city has been divided into five zones, and trash is collected Monday through Friday. Non-recyclable trash is picked up one day and recyclables the following day. There will no longer be pickups on major holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

A spokeswoman for trash hauler Western Waste Industries said some mix-ups at the start of a new program are to be expected. “For one thing, even the zone designation is new,” Janice Hahn said. “It is a lot to expect for a brand-new program like this to run without any hitches.”

Apparently, a large number of residences in the west end of the city, where Negrete lives, did not receive the notices until Tuesday afternoon--after they had put their trash out that morning, which had been the usual collection time.

Negrete said he was “madder than heck” about the mix-up. His garbage was still there Wednesday and, Negrete said, he wasn’t sure when it would be removed.

“Everybody put their trash out on Tuesday,” he said, motioning to the assortment of trash cans that lined both sides of his street. “Nobody knows what’s going on.”

Western Waste representatives said Negrete’s trash would be collected today.

The program is aimed at complying with a state law requiring the city to reduce by 25% the amount of trash it sends to landfills by 1995 and 50% by the year 2000.

The council in August set trash collection costs at $12.37 a month, retroactive to July 1. Carson residents had been paying $12.45 a month for Western Waste Industries’ collection services. The new fee was the one the trash hauler recommended.

The annual cost of the new rate--$148.44--represents a yearly savings of 96 cents for each household.