University of Maryland students are all too familiar with the noise made from trucks on the campus — oftentimes loud clanging that can be heard outside dorms early in the morning.
Michelle Yan, a junior psychology major, has noticed loud truck noises outside her Commons 2 apartment since she moved in at the beginning of the school year. The noises begin at 7 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays and often wake her up, she said.
“I don’t need to be up that early. … It’s kind of annoying when I have to wait for the noise to be gone and for me to fall back asleep,” said Yan, noting that her classes don’t begin until noon.
Garbage truck services do not begin at residence halls until 7 a.m. because there is a restriction, said Bill Guididas, recycling and solid waste coordinator. But garbage trucks that go to administrative buildings on the campus begin as early as 5 a.m., Guididas said. The trucks Guididas oversees only service university dorms and administrative buildings.
“Because there’s no traffic at that hour, they can get around safely and easily,” Guididas said, adding that the trucks are difficult to maneuver in tight spaces.
Trash collection also runs on Sundays on weekends with football games, when garbage trucks service Maryland Stadium, he said.
“[The drivers] try to be as quiet as they can to minimize their intrusion,” Guididas said.
Yan said she hears the loud noises a total of three times in the morning and early afternoon, at 7 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon. This includes beeps from trucks backing up and the sound of trash “getting dumped into a really large container,” she said.
“[It’s] super hot right now, so we have all the windows open … it makes the noise even worse,” Yan said.
Mitchell Kenyon, a junior animal sciences major, said garbage trucks beneath his room in Terrapin Row’s Building A wake him up at 7 a.m., and then again at 10 a.m. during the week.
“I don’t even have any 8 a.m. classes. But if I did I’d be set,” Kenyon said.
But garbage trucks may not be the only culprit of the noise students hear from their dorm rooms. Students such as Yan, who live near dining halls, may hear the noises of delivery trucks, which deliver food before 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, said Bart Hipple, Dining Services spokesman.
Dining Services asks truck drivers to turn their engines off to minimize noise and exhaust fumes, Hipple said. Deliveries take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes, and rather than receiving many small deliveries, the dining halls receive fewer, larger deliveries “to lower the campus’s overall carbon footprint,” he said.
The trucks deliver to the South Campus Dining Hall, North Campus Dining Hall, 251 North and Mulligan’s Grill and Pub, Hipple said. He noted the frequency of deliveries has declined over the years.
“I do know that over time we’ve really made … a conscious effort to keep down the number of deliveries to every known location,” he said.
CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the garbage trucks run Mondays through Fridays, and on Saturdays as well during weekends with football games. The garbage trucks run Mondays through Saturdays, and on Sundays during weekends with football games. This story has been updated.
