My Real Small Town Problem... To save curbside recycling?

Alright...

Here's the approx #'s...

The 2004 actual for trash collection was $309K. The take was $269K.

Had a $40K or so deficit, with increasing costs looking to $40K more.

Current rates are $33/qtr for Seniors > 65, $44/qtr general with the outlook for general cost looking to be $50-$53/qtr.

Currently it's in house garbage collection for two bags + curbside, recycle grass, etc.

Due to problems with our composting and sourcing, the regional residents' prevailing rates being lower than the proposed higher rates, the loss of two full timers to higher paying jobs, increasing risk and costs of insurance, tipping fees, etc. etc., we put the service out to bid.

The winning bid was NOT Waste Management, by far, however the cost per resident breakdown to keep curbside is coming down to the same cost.

We have, in our bid, options without recycling, however - we are not a mandated municipality. These options save $35-$45/year per resident. For example, I think I have numbers worked out so our expected $24-$40/year raise can be down to $8-15/year for seniors and everyone... But this would mean curbside recycling going to voluntary drop off...

The higher bid rate (depending on whether we can keep our Senior discount) may be a $20 per quarter hike for Seniors - $80/year.

We do not want to move backward on recycling, we do not want to hike Senior Citizens' bills by $80 a year, but we must make a decision next Wednesday for a five year contract.

The curbside recycling represents a $44K difference (988 x $11.10 x 4 qtrs), relieved by a couple K in performance grants.

There is money out there to apply for, but like I said - we have a week to know about it coming in...

(The population is over 2700, with 988 must-carry units of residential garbage ~ 25% Seniors)

The public participation was 2 vs. 2 on keeping costs down vs. not moving back on recycling. The move to bid out was to try to avoid the increasing costs, so money drove the process to begin with. But I was obviously hoping bids would be more competitively priced.

I'm not looking to lobby anyone on a vote.

I'm looking for a way to:
a)Keep costs down
b)Keep curbside recycling
c)Have the answer soon
d)Find that "Easy" button Staples advertises...

and yes, I'm going to look up grants, local companies and philanthropists (yeah, right).. for money hiding under rocks as well as all the numbers in the budget in front of me, but...

Any ideas on how to fix the problem?

Do you have the option of decreasing the frequency of pickups? That won't change the amount of recycling they have to pick up, but they'll still spend less time running around town picking it all up. I'd imagine it would lower the cost somewhat . . . but sounds like you'd need to rework the bid somehow. Anyhow, hope this helps! :hi:

and us doing only the recycling once a month prohibitively expensive. If we lose curbside, we will retain a drop-off point.

Whether we can split the difference on the recycling with the new carrier and do it every two weeks instead of every week, which was not included as one of the four bids:
3 bags, no weekly recycling
4 bags, no weekly recycling
3 bags with weekly recycling
4 bags with weekly recycling

will be up to them and our solicitor...

But having the new company do it less often is an idea I will bring up... Thanks

local centers that you drive to and deposit with large containers, onsite employees that maintain the areas, and a small covered shelter that you can put usable items for anyone to take.

My take on the curbside service: they leave a mess if the recycled items aren't in perfect order. They have rules about how items can be left for pickup. If it's not per rules, they will leave it behind, or part of it. So then the citizen has to clean it up.
The local centers allow anyone in the county to drive in and drop it off in large dumpster containers, and leave. They can drop off usable items as well, take what they want of what has been left by others.

This works only if there are enough of them placed to make it convenient. It also takes (or at least hopefully) takes off the road the large pickup trucks that are having to go through the communities, stopping at every home to pick up.

Too much in our society is wasted as it is. Any attempt to recycle is worthy. Hopefully you'll find the right mix or solution to keep it going.

dp

for plastic, glass, cans in Borough-labeled bins and this would be a change for residents..

Our borough, although small, is urban (density > 5000/sq mi - yes, that means our 2700 are in 0.5 sq mi) according to the census..

Garbage rates in PA have been a big bone of contention for local governments - a big pain...

i live in the rural area. It's a college town (Chapel Hill, NC) and i suspect the inner city has to deal with your situation likewise.

But out here in the boonies, we have to drive anyway, to the market, stores, work, etc. The centers are convenient to many shopping areas, so it's on the way.

We were given bins that were to be used for streetside pickup. But no one lives by the road out here. So they can be hauled to the centers easily.

Just as an aside, and one you could consider. In Raleigh, a much larger city, they provide pickup at the house (not curbside) for those that are deemed 'elderly', 80 or older i think. I recall this b/c my mom put in for my dad last year when he turned 80. He still takes his to the curb, calls it his exercise. :D

but you could just as well implement age requirements to prod those to deliver their recycling to centers, and cull the pickups to those that were 'elderly' and less likely to be traveling about as much?

dp

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Recycling is but ONE part of reducing waste to landfills.

MY emphasis is on reducing my waste at home.

I have taken many of my habits from camping in the bush, where minimizing garbage is REAL necessary unless one wants to be pestered with bugs and animals.

What follows are a few suggestions.

One of the biggest problems I solved was meat/poultry packaging, which there was almost NO way to keep it from attracting pests - SO - I took plastic reusable containers when I went shopping, repackaged them in my vehicle, and left the bloody messy wrappings in the SUPERMARKET's garbage.

I also paid attention to the containers I bought stuff in, paying a wee bit extra for the container that I could reuse at home either for food, or nut's n bolts and such.

Even tho on a limited income, I treat myself to those prepared potato salad and cole slaw items at the deli, mainly to get those CLEAR containers, so I can see what is in them in the fridge before they grow into something not really edible, and end up in the garbage.

Leftovers from meals get EATEN, not thrown in the garbage: almost ANYTHING can go into a stew or a soup for later - one would be surprised at the interesting and tasty differences in your meals.

I try to buy canned food in cans where EITHER end can be opened, unlike say Campbell's soup cans, the small ones. I take BOTH ends off of the cans, making them easy to flatten, taking up about 1/10th of the space of an unflattened can. I still crush the other style as much as possible. I also rinse the cans, keeping the garbage from stinking.

I avoid glass containers as much as possible, obviously broken glass at a campsite can play havoc with bare feet. Also, plastic containers can be crushed to conserve space, garbage collectors can refuse to pick up anything with broken glass in it for obvious reasons.

I buy the largest containers of juices, etc, and transfer it to smaller containers for lunches and backpacking.

Yes, I miss the convenience of just grabbing one of a dozen juice boxes out of the fridge, but that's part of the price of conserving package-wise. Same goes for cereals and munchies - I buy the largest, and repackage in baggies that I can reuse for the same product time after time.

All cardboard boxes are flattened b4 going into my garbage, I am surprised at the number of people that just throw an empty box in their garbage bag, taking up a whole lot of space of - well, nothing!

Bread bags do fine for lunches, Styrofoam trays from meats and poultry are great for under items in the microwave, cut them to fit if you must - but they can be used many times before you need to throw them out. Even wash them and use them for "plates", food tastes almost the same even tho they are square instead of round! Again, they can be reused may times before they have to enter the waste cycle.

Oh, and composting - heck I had one composter INSIDE my apartment for years, egg shells, bones, veggie leftovers like the ends of tomatoes and celery we don't eat, I was even rewarded with some fresh onions and tomatoes out of it -

I put about 4 inches of stones in the bottom of a 15-20 liter plastic pail, about 8 inches of potting soil, then just kept mixing in whatever - and being a wee bit more gentle with my "mixing" after I found FOOD growing in it, sometimes adding a bit more soil now and then, and of course watering it a wee bit, just a spray on the top to keep it moist.

I'm sure some of you have other methods to divert some of your garbage BEFORE it hits the curb. I'd be interested to hear them.

One more thing, no REAL need to recycle grass to a landfill - leave it on the lawn, or collect it and spread it around any trees or gardens you may have. It will hold moisture for the tree/garden, as well as leaching fertilizing nutrients back into the soil.

Reducing the amount to the curb, inevitably will reduce costs.

1 or 2 "official" sizes of bags. You have to buy stickers at the grocery and stick it on the bag so garbage truck picks it up.

I'll bet people will generate less trash, and you get to back off the elderly who may not be generating as much as others.

of $3/bag, I understand the idea but I don't think our residents would be up for it. They might, but we didn't put it out to bid that way, so it's too late for now (five years).

I was the lone nay vote (5-1) because of eliminating curbside recycling, and this will be covered as such in the local paper today.

We were able to keep the rates the same as they are now, however the senior discount and annual prepay discount has been eliminated.

It has gone from in house two bags plus grass composting and curbside recycling to outsourced four bags with voluntary drop off recycling with no grass composting pending EPA review.

Partner with local grocers to make blue "recycling" bags available to residents, and make it known that residents can simply put their recyclables in these free bags and then toss them in with their regular trash. Curbside pickup costs are practically eliminated, and overhead is reduced to the price of the bags and the cost of having an employee or two poke through the dump as the trash comes in to pull out the blue bags.

It's an effective recycling program used in many cities across the country for both its cost-effectiveness and it's minimal impact to current garbage collection procedures. The only downside is public education...it doesn't work very well in large cities because it's much harder to get the word out about the program without a major media campaign. In your small town that shouldn't be an issue.