Chicago aldermen have long controlled a key city service: garbage pick-up. But not for long, says Mayor Rahm Emanuel. As part of our coverage this week of Emanuel’s budget, we look at the politics of trash.

Right now, Chicago’s garbage trucks are assigned to one of its 50 wards.

“No person designing a garbage collection system from scratch would base it on a political map,” Emanuel told aldermen during his budget address in mid-October.

Emanuel wants to move to a grid system. Trucks would have straightforward routes instead of zig-zagging within squiggly ward boundaries. The administration said that’d save $20 million in the first year. Some aldermen have embraced the change, but not all.

“It’s not about politics,” said Ald. Roberto Maldonado of the West Side’s 26th Ward, during an interview at his Humboldt Park office. “It is about efficiency, and making sure that my constituents will be reassured that they won’t have any problems.”

Maldonado said that, historically, “constituents hold accountable the alderman for the garbage collection.”

So if he no longer controls trash pick-up, Maldonado wants residents to call “the mayor’s office number” with trash complaints. But that already kind-of happens. It’s 311, Chicago’s non-emergency hotline. And from a quick survey in Maldonado’s ward, people already do that.

“For things like that, you don’t really need to call the aldermen,” Robert Williams said. “You call 311.”

“I just dial 311 since it’s non-emergency and ask them to come pick up the garbage,” said Ivan Rivera.

Shikita Carr said she calls the police to report garbage problems, and she claimed they respond. (Though maybe that’s not the best advice.)

Still, those responses indicate residents already expect centralized services. Recycling - in areas where there is recycling - is picked up on a grid. And last year the city started “field testing” grid garbage pickup, though a Streets and Sanitation Department spokesman says there’s no “hard data available” from the tests.

At a recent hearing, a handful of aldermen grumbled about Emanuel’s plan and how few details have been released. The city is paying a consultant to chart out the grids using GIS mapping software. But those results aren’t expected to be ready until after aldermen vote on the budget.