Some rural Virginia localities are shifting how they manage residents' trash after problems with bears and with a more unpredictable species: people.
Kim Chiddo took over as Floyd County's interim county administrator in July, and she was faced with an immediate conundrum. Residents dispose of their trash at 21 green box sites, which are home to 62 dumpsters. But there was a problem.
"I was receiving pictures constantly, literally of a person driving up to a green box site, Route 8, very busy, and threw their household trash bag in, and a bear popped out, during the day," Chiddo says. "That's a safety concern."
The county purchased bear-proof boxes, but they didn't really work. Not because of the design.
"The other issue that's been consistent is the community just not assisting us, meaning closing the box, or leaving trash outside the box," Chiddo says.
So Floyd County spent much of 2025 playing a green box version of three-card monte. If a site got really bad, they'd move it to a different location up the road. The goal was to confuse the bears – but the shifts sometimes confused residents too.
Floyd also upgraded a green box site on county land near town. The site was paved, fenced, and made accessible by a gate that opens during the day. Chiddo says the county's also considering an idea that neighboring Franklin County is implementing: using staffed sites with a trash compactor.
"One compactor will take the equivalent of 27 dumpster boxes before it's full," says Jeff Gauldin, Franklin County's director of public works.
Gauldin previously saw Henry County transition from unstaffed green box sites to staffed compactor locations. The staffed sites discourage illegal dumping by contractors and non-residents. The compactors allow the county to manage fewer sites and maintain them better.
"You look at the size of Franklin County, it's 770 square miles, and one of the main issues aside from maintenance and use and misuse, my drivers have to go to every one of the unmanned sites every day," Gauldin says. "You never know what's going to be in the dumpsters. It could be empty or overflowing full."
Franklin County currently has 20 green box sites and 14 compactor sites. The goal is to convert entirely to compactors.
Gauldin estimates the change will save the county between $100,000 and $150,000 annually.
