In recent years in Greensboro, there have been a whole lot of changes when it comes to waste collection and recycling policies, and, on Thursday, May 9, the City of Greensboro announced another big change: A new director of the Solid Waste & Recycling Department has been chosen from within the department after what city leaders say was an extensive nationwide search.
Greensboro seems to spend more time talking about, tweaking and changing up waste collection policies than any city in the country, so this is an extremely important position and the hope is that the new director will keep things running smoothly once he takes over the job on Wednesday, May 15.
After the search, Interim City Manager Chris Wilson appointed Griffin Hatchell as the new director of the Solid Waste & Recycling Department.
Hatchell began working for Greensboro in the fall of 2021 as the city’s solid waste collections manager. In that capacity, he oversaw residential trash and recycling services, as well as yard, bulk and e-waste collections.
Hatchell has been the point man for the latest huge change in Greensboro’s collection policy: the transition to the new yard waste containers that showed up in front of people’s houses a few weeks ago.
Now, he’ll oversee the department of roughly 170 employees.
Before coming to work for Greensboro, Hatchell was the superintendent of solid waste for the City of Raleigh.
He has also worked as an operations manager for Waste Industries and as an operations supervisor for UPS.
In a prepared statement that accompanied the city’s announcement of the hiring, Wilson said he’s excited to have Hatchell in the top spot.
“Mr. Hatchell will be an asset to our leadership team as he offers a fresh perspective, based on his extensive solid waste experience spanning the private and public sectors,” Wilson said. “The City will benefit from increased efficiency in our waste management initiatives as Griffin optimizes our collection processes, thereby improving overall effectiveness.”
Hatchell also offered up some very positive comments.
“I look forward to serving the residents of Greensboro in this new capacity. Together, with my dedicated team, we will work to improve and expand solid waste services,” he stated. “Furthermore, we will continue to make strides in recycling, such that Greensboro becomes a model for other cities.”
Under his leadership, the city is now implementing a totally new yard waste policy and city crews will begin removing the new gray yard waste containers from people’s houses. Not really, but let’s hope the consistency of leadership from within the department means that the current policies are around a while – at least long enough for city residents to learn all the complicated new rules and the penalties for disobeying them.
Hatchell holds a Bachelor of Science in Technology Education Graphic Communications from NC State University and is certified by the Solid Waste Association of North America in the areas of Solid Waste Collections Manager and Management of Land Field Operations.
The gray cans aren’t so bad for sticks and clippings but I really hope he finds a way to keep vacuuming the leaves from our streets. Otherwise the city council might be out of a job.
Who’s going put the city council out of a job?
16 and counting big city. You have to be proud of your brothers
Does that say 5:33am? you have to get a life!
Most successful people get up early. You should try it
Kinda hard to dispute the truth isn’t it big city
With district voting, the same old tired, and unintelligent candidates will be re-elected. Go ahead and crow about the change in demographics. The change only proves the point about what happens when one man, one vote applies to everyone regardless of the ability to think, to reason, and to be discerning and well-informed; think NY, Las Angeles, and South Africa.
I suggest it has less to do with one man one vote than with the overwhelming majority of men and women who do not vote at all in municipal elections. You can blame the inconvenience of voting in off years on the Council, but the nonvoters have only themselves to blame.
Too bad, I thought Mayor Nancy Vaughan would be a perfect candidate to run the solid waste program! She done such an outstanding job over two terms turning our City into solid waste!
Jim Donaldson
Hope he has some common sense
Maybe now he can find a way to recycle glass!
If you knew anything no one is recycling glass. No recyclers are accepting glass or paying for it . So, Please do your homework before commenting about things you know nothing about , if a hauler says they are recycling glass , they’re lying !!
Three early question he should address is the actual volume of leaves to be collected in a typical leaf collection season, the maximum volume of leaves to be collected at the peaks of leaf falls, and whether the containers provided by the City are sufficient to manage the volume. Evidently the City Council never had any facts regarding these volumes, so the new manager will have an opportunity to do so this season. If the containers prove inadequate, then he can begin work on that problem. If that problem is not solved, then the excess leaves will end up in the streets, drains, creeks, parks, empty lots, etc. and he will have to solve that problem too.
This is funny. When the issue about buying the YW bins was before the council, I call Griffin and asked a simple question, how much did each bin cost the tax payer? His answer “the dame as last time” I stated that I was looking for a number – He stated again same as last time. I then said he was not being transparent – he then stated he did not like being compared to a used car salesman. After thatbhe did want to talk further. This is the best GSO can do then we ate in trouble. He is the architect of the new leaf pickup program. Maybe the next coucil will send him back to Durham.
Can only hope people will be smart enough to put the current city council members out of a job.
After a national search…….
Does this mean that if I spray paint everything grey, the City will pick it up?