Poll shows most Tulsans approve of new trash service

BY BRIAN BARBER World Staff Writer

Tulsans for the most part like the new trash and recycling system that was implemented a month ago, a new poll shows.

An Oklahoma Poll of 311 likely city voters, conducted Oct. 25 to Nov. 1, indicates 29 percent strongly approve of the service, while 26 percent somewhat approve, 14 percent were uncertain, 7 percent somewhat disapprove and 24 percent strongly disapprove.

The margin of error is plus or minus 5.56 percentage points.

SoonerPoll.com's Bill Shapard said that, since the full system only went into effect Oct 1., the approval level should grow as long as there aren't any major problems.

"We found that when people got used to changing their behavior, they ended up liking it," he said.

The city has moved from a trash system in which most people had twice-a-week service with unlimited throwaway to a system in which the basic service is once-a-week with provided carts and recycling.

For an additional service day or to discard trash or green waste in bags outside the carts costs more.

Shapard said the 24 percent that strongly disapprove of the service will be a tough group to win over.

"I think you can almost categorize some of them as people who didn't like the change to begin with," he said. "They will be harder to crack. But I think over the course of time that number will go down. Within a system, there's always nonconformists."

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About the Oklahoma Poll

The poll of 311 likely voters was conducted by SoonerPoll.com, using a random digit dialing technique that included both cellphone and landline telephone numbers.

Interviewers collected the data Oct. 25-Nov. 1. Results were weighted by gender and phone status (cellphone only/landline only/both). The poll was sponsored by the Tulsa World.

The margin of error is ±5.56 percentage points. This poll conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls. A complete description of the methodology can be found here.