Recycling and trash cans out on the curb on trash day in Arlington. (Photo: TBD Staff)

Arlington's reputation as a clean, green, friendly utopia on the Potomac hasn't come out of nowhere. It's nearly impossible to find someone who can recall the last big political scandal, or who thinks something has been grossly mismanaged in the county. Potholes are fixed, bricks are realigned, improperly trimmed trees are remedied. But there must be some glitches, at least some tiny imperfections in the well-manicured matrix that is Arlington. In Imperfect Arlington, we search for and document these anomalies, and, most likely, take note of how quickly they are repaired into oblivion. Have you caught Arlington off its game? Send us a tip.

Imperfect Arlington? Well, just this once.

James Magee, a responsible recycler, spotted trash collectors putting the contents of both his trash receptacle and his recyclables bin into the same truck one Friday in August. He wasn't sure how long this had been going on, as he had been living out of state for nearly a year and a half.

He wasn't about to let it go. He called Arlington County to complain, according to a record of trash related complaints from  last month. What followed, in classic Arlington fashion, was an extremely efficient and pleasant customer service experience, he now tells TBD. "In less than an hour, I received a call from a manager of disposal services, and he said he’d be right on it," he said. 

Since then, he's been keeping a pretty close eye on the situation — it's hard not to when you live in a town house so close to the street, he points out — and the trash transgression has not been repeated. "He said he'd be right on it, and so they apparently were," he says. "I'm not at all unhappy about the county’s response."