We had a standing room only crowd at the forum last night, hearing input from citizens on the new Veolia trash proposal.
A summary of the proposal is available from the Kirksville City website.
Before I get started, here are a few facts to keep in mind:
- Veolia’s trash contract with the city is not up for renewal until April 2010.
- Veolia presented this proposal because City Manager Mari Macomber asked for it last year. Because our street crews currently spend a month of resources every year on the annual spring cleaning instead of fixing streets, she simply asked Veolia, “What would it take to have you take over the annual spring cleaning?” My understanding is that this was a simple fact-finding operation – not the beginning of any efforts to renew Veolia’s contract.
- This is only a proposal, and only the first proposal presented.
- The council has not discussed this proposal since Veolia first presented it in February.
- The purpose of last night’s forum was for the council to get citizen input.
Here is a sort of summary of the main concerns that citizens brought up last night and Veolia’s responses:
Q: Will I have to push this 96 gallon tote down my long driveway? How will I get it out during the snow? What if I’m physically unable to get it to the curb?
A: Veolia explained that they realize the cart will not work in every circumstance and not everyone will be able to use it. In these cases, they will make special arrangements like they do now, such as porch-side pickup for elderly people. But the hope is that the tote will work fine for 95% of their customers and greatly reduce the physical strain on their employees.
Q: If this is more cost effective for Veolia, why would it cost us more?
A: Under the new proposal, with the proposed 96 gallon totes and one large item allowed each week, they would anticipate an increase in trash volume per household, thus increasing landfill space required and disposal fees. Based on their experiences with other communities, they estimate current average trash levels per household (right now about 26 lbs) would increase to 45 lbs if this proposal were implemented as presented. Veolia also wants to cover their initial capital expenses for outfitting their vehicles with the automated pickup equipment.
Q: I would never fill a 96 gallon tote, and I don’t have a place to put that big thing around my house. Could we perhaps have a smaller tote?
A: Yes, there is the possibility of a smaller tote, such as a 64 gallon container or smaller. It would need to be consistent for each household, though. They would prefer not having a system where one person has a big one and one has a small one, etc, because of complications with the automated loading machinery.
Q: Why not do fewer bulk item pickups a month? If you let people put one large item out each week, won’t it look like spring cleanup every week?
A: Probably not, because most households would not put out one large item each week. By spreading it out over time, it reduces the overall volume of trash in any given week and is more manageable. But if they do it once a month, twice a year, etc, then those days will be more likely to have a larger number of bigger items on the street because people will have to save up their big items for those days.
Q: Why can’t the city just continue to do spring cleanup itself once a year, like we always have?
A: Well, we can. But if we turn it over to someone else, we free up our road crew and resources for an extra month to do work on roads, during a month where the weather is typically ideal for it.
Q: Won’t a larger tote discourage people from recycling?
A: It may, and that’s something we need to think about as we evaluate this proposal. Veolia reports that about 25% of Kirksville households recycle, which is above average for a community like ours. It’s not their intent to discourage recycling. Their proposal includes keeping the recycling program in place as it is. We could go with a smaller tote.
Q: Why does the proposal call for a decrease in yard waste pickup services?
A: Veolia said they put together a proposal that they believe makes the most economical sense from their perspective and the city’s perspective. They also mentioned that Kirksville is one of the few communities left that actually pick up yard waste at all. Mari said the city does not plan to make any changes to its current brush pickup policies.
At the beginning of their presentation, Veolia showed a nice video about how the automated pickup system worked well for a community in the Detroit area, and how it dramatically reduces injuries and health problems for their employees, and makes their operation much more efficient. As a person with back and neck problems myself, I completely agree that the automation is a good and noble idea. If we can incorporate automation into a proposal that is environmentally responsible and does not encourage a dramatic increase in trash consumption, we may be on our way to a proposal that I believe will be acceptable to the public.
At any rate, thank you for sharing your concerns and ideas at the forum. You’ve given the council a lot to consider in our further discussions with Veolia. This is far from over, and we will continue to keep you informed and ask for your input throughout this process.
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Todd, I was unable to attend the forum last week about the trash contract as I was out of town. I have read through the Q&A on your web site. I have a few thoughts to add to the board. In my parents’ home town in southern Illinois, their trash company (not Veolia) switched over to automation this spring, and gave the 96-gal totes to every household. There was no way my Mom could wheel that up the driveway, so they delivered a smaller tote to her that still works with the truck’s grabber. I think the tote is even smaller than a 64-gal. So different households have different size totes in their community.
Several weeks ago I drove around some streets in my corner of town on trash pick-up day, and counted how many households had more trash bags or containers than one, and it was less than 1 in every ten. Some households, like mine, did not have any trash out. I try to recycle as much as possible, so my trash only goes to the curb about once every 5 weeks. Or even less. I am not in favor of paying for a large trash tote that I do not need. I will basically be subsidizing the trash charge for those large families and others who do not recycle who need that capacity. That is not fair!
I am in favor of keeping the yard waste pick-up as it is. I like the idea of bulk item pick-up once a year, but perhaps the city needs to explore a different time of the year to do it. Do it in October or November when the crews are not working on the streets. It certainly does not need to be done every month or every week. I had a few items out for bulk pick-up this month and about half of the items were taken (aka recycled/reused) by the treasure hunters that search the piles. This is a good thing as it reduces the waste going to the landfill. If the items are appearing randomly curbside as in the new proposal then the recycle/reuse opportunities are reduced and the landfill reaches capacity even sooner.
Please put this whole trash contract issue up for more discussion and options. Thanks Todd!
Thank you so much for your comments, Sue. I will be sure to bring them up when the council discusses the issue again. I hope you’ll continue to keep up with the progress and give your input.
Just a point of clarification: Veolia will provide the totes and pay for their upkeep and maintenance. Though I suspect when you say, “I don’t want to pay for a trash tote,” that you’re implying that part of the price increase is to cover Veolia’s cost of providing those totes.
In fairness to Veolia, they did say at the meeting that the main two reasons for the $4/month increase in cost is: 1) increased disposal fees due to the increase in trash they expect to receive with 96 gallon totes, and 2) some of the capital expenses of outfitting their trucks with the automatic lifting machinery.
I agree with Sue about the size of the totes. They should be far smaller. I think a 64 gallon (or somewhere in the 40-50 range, if those are available) would be far better.
What I’d *rather* see is two totes — a green and a blue (like they do in my fathers neighborhood in SoCal). There should be absolutely no reason anyone (that isn’t a business) should need a 96 gallon, or even a 64 gallon, really. If they need something of that size, then they aren’t recycling (or aren’t recycling as much as they could be), and that needs to change. It takes very little time, and you don’t even have to sort anything! Heck, the only major requirement (at this time) is that paper goods not be dirty (IE: Food caked) and that it be in a clear-ish plastic bag. It can’t be that difficult to get a family to start this — I have a group of 4-6 friends over two nights a week and, after the first week, had them putting recyclables/trash where it belonged.
As it is now, I *might* generate a bag of trash a week. Maybe. As for yard waste, I usually end up mowing once a week during the nicer months. I only bag the waste from the front yard, but still end up with three or four bags for them to pick up. Yard waste pickup needs to continue.
Hack again?!