Trash fees to be based on amount of residents’ refuse
by Lisa Duckers
Residents will begin paying garbage-hauling fees based on the amount of trash they generate, the City Council decided Tuesday. In addition, the city’s trash hauler will have to set aside more waste for recycling and other green measures.
Currently the City Council charges a flat fee for trash removal, but the council decided to implement a two-tiered structure as it prepares to seek bidders for a new municipal trash hauling contract. Companies will be asked to compete for the new contract in August.
A higher fee for a larger trash load is expected to provide a financial incentive for residents to reduce waste, and to recycle.
Each single-family household will be able to use 35-gallon, 64-gallon or 96-gallon carts. A 35-gallon cart will cost $4 a month, a 64-gallon cart will cost $6 a month, and a 96-gallon cart will cost $8 a month. Most residents currently use 64-gallon containers.
Blue recycling carts and green waste carts will continue to be distributed to residents and serviced at no additional cost.
The current contract, held by Waste Management and set to expire in May 2011, charges residents a flat fee of $13.74 a month.
“This is a very important part of the contract in terms of reducing waste,” Councilmember Portia Cohen said of the two-tiered fees.
The current trash contract calls for the hauler to divert 38 percent of the garbage into recycling and other green measures, with 7.7 percent used to transform waste into energy.
The council set a new diversion requirement of 44 percent. That will require the city’s construction and demolition program to help meet a diversion goal set by state lawmakers, but is also expected to attract more trash hauling competitors than would a higher diversion target.
“Our overall diversion rate city-wise is already more than 50 percent,” Mayor Mitch Ward said. “By increasing the main hauler diversion rate from 38 percent to 44 percent, the overall city diversion rate will go up even higher, and more materials will be recycled.” ER