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Tuesday July 13 staff will report to council on the main variants of the village’s next garbage contract, which begins in April of 2011.

There are four options: 

1. Renew the current solid waste contract with Republic Services, Inc. and maintain the current volume-based (sticker) program.
2. Renew the current solid waste contract with Republic Services, Inc. and implement an automated cart collection program.
3. Renew the current solid waste contract with Republic Services, Inc. and implement the combination cart program with a refuse sticker component.
4. Decline the solid waste program proposals submitted by Republic Services, Inc. and solicit proposals from other vendors via a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

A significant percentage of the village’s 14,550 households served responded to the garbage survey, clearly preferring the current system by a 5 to 1 margin.  10,718 households use the current sticker based system, and 3,832 take advantage of the cart based pickup.  Of note, 2,403 senior households were identified in the staff research.  Seniors typically generate less weekly trash than, say, a family of three or four.  In 2009 each household used an average of 3.35 stickers per month.

Option 1: Keep it the same.

Warrenville uses volume based stickers via Waste Management.

Renewing the same system for another three years has several distinct advantages when compared to the other options.  Among them:

• It maintains lower disposal costs for most residents even with sticker pricing increases.
• It encourages waste minimization and recycling as much as possible.
• It allows flexibility for residents when their service requirements change.

With this option, all features stay.  One Amnesty Day, Christmas Tree pickup, leaf pickup and the 18 gallon recycling bins would remain.

Staff also asked for a proposal to maintain the current program for four years instead of three.

Republic complied, but stated that a four year contract would necessitate a revenue guarantee from the Village for the second half of the four year contract, due to an anticipated reduction in sticker revenues during the course of the agreement.  If council chooses Option1 for four years,  staff will prepare a motion for a four year volume-based garbage program with  the proposed revenue guarantee for the last two years. Pricing would look like this:

Option 2: Everyone gets a cart.

Mt. Prospect uses ARC "grabber" trucks for their cart program.

A village wide automated cart system would have the following benefits:

• No sticker is required, and the containers hold larger volumes.
• No weight restrictions (currently 50 pounds per sticker) means if you can stuff it in, they will pick it up.
• Residents will be less likely to store refuse for Amnesty Day, if they currently do.
• There will be less litter on streets, as refuse, recycling and yard waste containers are all covered containers.

Yard waste containers can be packed as tight and as heavy as you can manage.  Friends in Glenview routinely pack theirs with several bags worth of leaves each fall, garden cleanings each spring, and trimmings every summer.

With Option 2 residents can dispose of one bulk item (furniture, etc.) per week at no additional charge. Amnesty Day would be eliminated.  Residents could suspend garbage service under the proposed cart program for a minimum of thirty days; during that time they would not be billed for garbage service.

Option 2 would also be a five year contract.

Option 3: Combining the elements of Options 1 & 2

Stickers would be a bit more, and carts would be a bit more than a straight sticker or cart program:

The fourth proposal would entail starting over from scratch and putting out an RFP, which the majority of council does not appear to favor at this time.

Extra items

Downtown recycling and annual leaf collection would be added as follows:

Larger recycling carts with lids. These larger carts would provide residents with large capacity for recycling.  Larger carts would also eliminate recyclable items blowing in the street during windy periods.

Condo and multi-unit building residents, despite multiple pleas to be included somehow into a garbage contract, do not appear to be included in any option so long as they use common dumpsters.

Multi-tenant buildings could be covered if:

• The multi-family units have curbside garbage pickup. Buildings served by a common dumpster would not be eligible.
• The building management company / homeowner’s association must purchase garbage carts for its residents.
• The building management company / homeowner’s association would get one monthly bill for garbage service.

The multi-family units would receive garbage collection once per week.  Multi-family units would not be eligible for any Amnesty Day collection.

Republic says 60% of their costs are fixed; incurred whether or not every household has garbage and/or recycling on the curb each week.  This year (2010) estimated fixed costs for the service, if equally distributed to each household participating, would amount to about $8.46 a month.  The other 40% are cited as variable, depending on costs of dumping (Republic uses landfills they manage), fuels and other elements, and revenues (or costs) from recyclables.

Republic, Waste Management, Veolia, and Groot all appear to contract for any of the three options.  Downers Grove is outside Groot’s current residential operating area.  Of the 32 communities surveyed by staff, eight use a volume based system similar to Option 1, ten have a hybrid system similar to Option 3, and thirteen use an unlimited cart based system similar to Option 2.

You can access the esheets which includes charts, graphs, the complete Garbage Survey, and minutes from the Environmental Concerns Commission meetings as well as previous council esheets here.

Previous DGreport posts on village waste and garbage can be found here.

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