St. Louis County is Broken And It Ain't Gettin' Fixed

From Mike Roberts . . . .I came across the following comment from a reader of the St. Louis American:

"John Nations is an amazing leader in Saint Louis County. The choice for him to take over as CEO reflects that leadership. Right now he works for Armstrong-Teasdale, one of Saint Louis' most powerful law firms. He does not need this job. He received this job because the Metro board understands that he has the ability to turn the transit system around in Saint Louis County.

And this decision marks one of the few times in the last seven years that Charlie Dooley has been involved in an intelligent decision." (From Charles, Aug. 29, 2010)

I'll say. Dooley is seldom involved in intelligent decisions. Most of his decisions in recent years have just been plain dumb. While there are many good things going on in St. Louis County, there are still too many dumb ones. Police issues, trash & recycling, political donations, use of county cars, proper enforcement of county regulations and a whole lot more.

When it comes to subdivisions in St. Louis County, the most evident to county residents are police protection, trash collections and enforcement of regulations . . . in particular to that of neighborhood preservation. Our police department is fully dedicated, however, they need the tools to increase their services to a higher level. St. Louis County cannot afford to react. We must ACT.

The trash situation is a mess. While those residents and subdivision who opted in to their program, a large percentage did not. What did this accomplish? It accomplished 4 law suits and millions of dollars in expenses . . . and counting. The trash regulations should be repealed and the effort started over - only without the dumb decisions.

Recycling? Why should I when St. Louis County does not. A major city (Kirkwood) within St. Louis County boundaries does not recycle. The St. Louis County Parks system does not support recycling efforts.

Now we have situations of the county waiving penalties for violations of Neighborhood Preservation regulation - uncut grass, privacy fences surrounding a house, gravel driveways, boats and trailers and cars parked on grass, abandoned cars and more.

I don't want to nit pick, but if one person is allowed to break the law, more will expect the same. County residents have a problem. The County Council will not correct it. Voters have to correct it.

Lawsuit Says Mandatory Charge for Recycling Violates Hancock Amendment

In December 2006, the St. Louis County Council passed an ordinance that divided the 100,000 homes in the unincorporated parts of the county into eight different trash districts. Through competitive bidding, the county hired one trash hauler for each district. Previously, subdivisions or individuals selected their own haulers for removing their trash.

The goal of the ordinance was to provide uniform trash pickup dates and allow for residents to be able to recycle. Weekly recycling and bulk pick-up is included in the price residents pay for trash.

A group of St. Louis County residents currently paying for the trash service have filed the most recent suit against the county back in June 2009 alleging that the mandatory charge for recycling, violates the state's Hancock Amendment. The amendment requires voter approval before government agencies can levy any tax, license or fee. The suit does not challenge the trash districting itself just the provision concerning recycling.

"We believe the [recycling charge] is a tax." said attorney David Butsch,of Butsch Simeri Fields. "St. Louis County always had an ordinance that required [households in incorporated parts of the county] to contract with a waste hauler to remove their trash. This is the first time that anyone under the ordinance had to pay for recycling. "

The suit filed by James Grace, is asking for class certification for residents participating in the program.

Florissant Recycling Center to Stay Open . . . For Now.

Florissant officials say an upsurge in curbside recycling may force the city to close their recycling center at St. Ferdinand Park. For the time being, the center will remain open.

St. Louis County's solid waste management code now mandates that trash haulers offer single-stream recycling in their basic trash service, although the code is being challenged in court.

Meridian Waste Services became Florissant's lone waste hauler and began offering single-stream recycling, the amount of recyclable waste at the center has dropped.

"It's down at least 50 percent," said Louis Jearls, public works director for Florissant. Jearls said the city received a grant from St. Louis County to maintain the center, which is open to city and county residents, for the next year.

Meanwhile, Charles Barcom, co-owner of Meridian, said the amount of recyclable material his company has collected rose from 82 tons in April to 105 tons in May. He thinks it will be 120 tons in July.

Barcom said tonnage most likely will increase when more residents receive their bins. The city obtained several grants that will pay for about 12,000 bins needed. About 6,000 bins have been distributed, and the city recently opened bids for another 5,000 or more bins, funded by another grant.

While Florissant is purchasing bins, St. Louis County is throwing them away. This doesn't make sense.

See other articles posted at this site.

A DISCOURAGED RECYCLER

It's very discouraging when you take the time to recycle at home, you even pick up recycling off the street, and then you go to a restaurant or a school and they recycle nothing and you can see it all be thrown in the trash. It just doesn't make sense.

I've also heard that residents of apartments are not required to recycle. If this is true, this also doesn't make sense.

Anonymous

Free Curbside Recycling Coming To Kirkwood Residents

Kirkwood is making plans to provide citywide single-stream curbside recycling in fall 2010, thanks in part to a mandate by St. Louis County. The service would be offered at no additional charge to residents.

Under the plan, the city, through its sanitation department, would offer once a week curbside recycling. To do that, one of the changes Kirkwood will make is going from twice a week curbside household waste pickup to once a week household waste pickup.

While many details remain to be worked out, the service is expected to include some or all of the following:

> The city will establish five sanitation districts. Recyclables will be picked up once per week on the same day as regular household waste.

>> Roll-out containers will be provided without charge to each single-family home. The city will apply for grant money from the St. Louis County Health Department and the St. Louis-Jefferson Solid Waste Management District to fund the containers.

>> Regular household waste will continue to be picked up in plastic bags. One roll of 50 bags will continue to be provided and delivered at no charge each year by the city, with additional bags available for purchase at Kirkwood City Hall.

>> There will be no change in the requirement that residents place yard waste in paper bags purchased from the city or in tied bundles.

>> Bulky pick-up will be provided on the day of household waste pick-up on a fee-for-service basis.

>> Businesses in the city will be able and encouraged to recycle.

>> Apartment complexes will continue to use dumpsters and will be encouraged to add a second dumpster for recyclables.

>> The process of converting to curbside recycling could take one year or longer and will include modification of some existing trucks as well as purchase of new ones.

Under St. Louis County ordinance, a municipality that has a sanitation department must show that 40 percent of its household waste is being recycled. If that diversion rate drops below 40 percent, cities must go to curbside recycling.

"More importantly, its (curbside recycling) time has come," Brown said. "Kirkwood sees itself as an environmentally-conscious community and we've been in the background in curbside recycling."

The city plans to host a couple of open forums over the next six months to give residents a chance to offer input.

http://www.websterkirkwoodtimes.com/Articles-i-2009-06-19-165601.113118_Curbside_Recycling_Coming_To_Kirkwood.html#print

Glass Recycling Suspended in Anchorage

The global market for recycled materials is bad right now. There are gluts of everything from cans to paper, but in Anchorage, where recycled glass has been piling up for months, the issue isn't global, it's local.

Recycling glass here has always been a problem. It costs too much to ship it out of state. And now most of the local market has dried up.

Glass recycling is no longer available in Anchorage. Everyone's bottles will end up in the landfill because no one has been able to figure out how to use recycled glass and make a profit.

So glass continues to pile up.

Recycling Business Going Bust

Steenstra's budgeting worries mount with each new load of cardboard, aluminum cans and plastic jugs dumped at West Virginia's largest county recycling center.

Faced with a dramatic slump in the recycling market, the director of the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority has cut 20 of his 24 employees' work weeks to four days from five and is urging residents to hoard their recyclables after informing municipalities with curbside recycling programs that the center will accept only paper until further notice.

"The market is just not there anymore," Steenstra said.

Just months after riding an incredible high, the recycling market has tanked almost in lockstep with the global economic meltdown. As consumer demand for autos, appliances and new homes dropped, so did the steel and pulp mills' demand for scrap, paper and other recyclables.

Cardboard that sold for about $135 a ton in September is now going for $35 a ton. Plastic bottles have fallen from 25 cents to 2 cents a pound. Aluminum cans dropped nearly half, to about 40 cents a pound, and scrap metal tumbled from $525 a gross ton to about $100.

"It's never gone from so good to so bad so fast," said Marty Davis, president of Midland Davis Corp. in Pekin, Ill., who has been in the recycling business since 1975.

The recycling market has gotten so bad that haulers in Oregon and Nevada who were once paid for recyclables are now getting nothing or, in some cases, are having to pay to unload their wares.

In Washington state, what was once a multimillion-dollar revenue source for Seattle may become a liability next year as the city may have to start paying companies to take their materials.

Trey Granger, spokesman for Earth911, a national environmental resource group, said the public's interest in recycling should be able to weather the downturn in an industry that has been growing for more than 30 years and has always been cyclical.

But the market shift is now jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term contracts for scrap metal as some companies that signed when prices were high are trying to cancel or postpone deliveries to take advantage of the cheaper spot market, Garino said.

Davis, of Midland Davis Corp. in Illinois, said he hopes to wait out the market and may rent warehouse space to store his more perishable recyclables, such as paper, until he can find buyers. He has some room to stockpile cans and plastics because in July, when prices were high, he unloaded more material than during any month in the past 10 years.

"It's going to be bleak for a while," he said. "We can just make our piles taller, and hopefully by spring, things will be a little better.”

Neither St. Louis County or St. Louis City is exempt from this situation which is affecting the recycling business nationwide. ABC Nightline recently presented an excellent program on this situation. You can view this at http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6583361.

If this continues for an extended period, county residents will have two choices. One, start stock piling your recyclables until the recycle market goes back up. Second, don’t recycle and start throwing your recyclables in with your trash.

Speak up. What are your thoughts? How will Charley Dooley and the county council solve this dilemma?

Recycling goes from boom to bust as economy stalls. Is St. L County Next?

Worries mount with each new load of cardboard, aluminum cans and plastics jugs dumped at West Virginia's largest county recycling center.

Faced with a dramatic slump in the recycling market, the director of the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority has cut 20 of his 24 employees' work week to four days from five, shuttered six of the authority's drop-off stations and is urging residents to hoard their recyclables after informing municipalities with curbside recycling programs that the center will accept only paper until further notice.

It would seem that our St. Louis County Recycling Program may have a major problem coming up if the recycling centers that our County Haulers are taking their loads and will not be able to resell those loads at a profit. What will the haulers do if they do not have a place to take them to? It will be much more expensive for the haulers to take them to landfill sites.

This raises a serious question. How will the County Administration handle this potential crisis?

Just months after riding an incredible high, the recycling market has tanked almost in lockstep with the global economic meltdown. As consumer demand for autos, appliances and new homes dropped, so did the steel and pulp mills' demand for scrap, paper and other recyclables.

Cardboard that sold for about $135 a ton in September is now going for $35 a ton. Plastic bottles have fallen from 25 cents to 2 cents a pound. Aluminum cans dropped nearly half to about 40 cents a pound, and scrap metal tumbled from $525 a gross ton to about $100.

While few across the country appear to be taking such drastic measures, the recycling market has gotten so bad that haulers in Oregon and Nevada who were once paid for recyclables are now getting nothing or in some cases are having to pay to unload their wares.

In Washington State, what was once a multimillion-dollar revenue source for the city of Seattle may become a liability next year as the city may have to start paying companies to take their materials. Some in the business are describing the downturn as the worst and fastest ever.

"It's never gone from so good to so bad so fast," said Marty Davis, president of Midland Davis Corp. in Pekin, Ill., who has been in the recycling business since 1975. The turnaround caught everyone off guard, said Steven Kowalsky, president of Empire Recycling in Utica, N.Y.

Most recyclables are shipped to Asian countries that use the material to make products that are shipped backed to the United States to be sold. But the market shift is now jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of long-term contracts for scrap metal as some companies that signed when prices were high are trying to cancel or postpone deliveries to take advantage of the cheaper spot market, Garino said.

Davis, of Midland Davis Corp. in Illinois, said he hopes to wait out the market and may rent warehouse space to store his more perishable recyclables, like paper, until he can find buyers. He has some room to stockpile cans and plastics because in July, when prices were high, he unloaded more material than during any month in the past 10 years. "It's going to be bleak for a while," he said. "We can just make our piles taller, and hopefully by spring, things will be a little better." Whether that will come as early as spring is debatable.

Just months after riding an incredible high, the recycling market has tanked almost in lockstep with the global economic meltdown. As consumer demand for autos, appliances and new homes dropped, so did the steel and pulp mills' demand for scrap, paper and other recyclables.

More information at: http://tiny.cc/CountyRecycle

Recycling: Resident Says He Was Only Half Wrong

"I criticized St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley's recycling program. I said he never should be re-elected because all us older folks were mad about the recycling program. I was very wrong. Each week I am amazed at the amount of recyclable materials in our bin. I also am amazed at the reduction in the amount of trash we send to the landfill.

But I still want to know why I have to pay extra to have something of value taken from the curb in front of my home. Is there a sweetheart contract somewhere in the recycling program?"
. . . . Bill McMullan - Affton

Churches, Non-Profits Hit By Reduction in Recycling

While recycling is going up in St. Louis County, it's going down at many churches and non-profit organizations. It's only common sense this would happen and was predicted and discussed before the law went into affect. Unfortunately, St. Louis County officials and the County Council ignored the pleas of these organizations.

Fewer and fewer people are bringing their recycling to the big green and yellow bins seen on the parking lots of schools and churches. (click on photos to enlarge)

Schools get money through those bins, and the company that oversees them has collected 25% less recycling compared to the same time period last year. That's nearly $9,500 less to schools, and more than seven tons of recycling going elsewhere.

Recycling at some schools is actually up due to campaigns they have done throughout the year. Some schools are down only $10 to $50 from last year, but some are down hundreds of dollars. St. Louis County's curbside recycling efforts have increased greatly this year.

The bins in the Parkway School District have collected about 35% less paper than this time last year. They got more than $18,000 from the program last year, but so far revenue is down more than 50% — a higher rate relative to the actual amount recycled because the program pays more money for more volume.

Washington Middle School in the Mehlville School District made just over $1,300 from the bin last year, and already science teacher Patricia Jones says recycling is down about 15% in their four bins. "I have noticed we have only begun to fill them partially since the county recycling has begun," she said.

The school uses the money for plants and flowers on the grounds, scientific calculators, and rewards and incentives for kids. Jones plans to distribute flyers to parents at the upcoming school open house, and remind them to keep bringing their paper to school.

Amy Schafer, a science teacher at Crestview Middle School in the Rockwood School District, said her school had been one of the top recyclers in the district but was shocked to see the money they get from the program dwindle to about $100 a month, when they used to get more than double that. "I know it's not a ton of money, but it's free money for doing the right thing," she said.

Prediction? People will recycle where it's most convenient - at the curb. It's only human nature. Organizations can expect their recycling efforts to continue to drop to a point where it only makes sense to discontinue the effort. The losers will be the churches, sports teams, schools, school projects - computers, science, field trips, uniforms, etc. The winners will be the recycling companies and St. Louis County - who will tout how successful the recycling program has been - with no mention of the losers.

Wentzville to offer more recycling, fewer trash pickups

Wentzville residents next spring will have more of an incentive to recycle.

During a work session earlier this month, aldermen agreed to switch to a once-a-week trash pickup schedule, meaning residents' trash and recycling will be picked up once a week on separate days. Currently, residents' trash is picked up twice a week, recycling bins included.

Wentzville's contract with its trash hauler doesn't expire until spring 2009, but officials will be accepting bids for the contract early to allow time for a transition period.The decision to change trash schedules largely was prompted by what Public Works Director Bill Bensing said was residents' No. 1 complaint: the lack of recycling in the city.

About 80 percent of the average barrel of trash is recyclable, but Wentzville has a recycling rate of only 30 percent, he said. That's half as much as other municipalities in St. Charles County, said Stormwater Management Coordinator Jamie Paige.

Plus, Wentzville doesn't benefit financially from the amount of material it recycles because it doesn't generate enough volume. Instead, the city's trash hauler takes the recyclable material to the transfer station in O'Fallon. If recycling volumes increased, Wentzville could directly receive the resulting revenue - about $15 per ton, Paige has said.

Officials hope a once-a-week pick-up schedule will help the city do just that. That's because residents will use 64-gallon rolling recycling carts rather than 18-gallon bins. The carts will have labels educating residents about what may and may not be recycled. And picking up trash one fewer day per week could force residents to start recycling more, they said. The city's single-stream recycling program will allow residents to combine recyclable paper and mixed containers in one bin for collection, a convenience that typically increases household participation.

Some aldermen said changing trash pick-up schedules was unnecessary, confusing and inconvenient. Residents who are not used to recycling might find it difficult to go a whole week without a second trash pick-up, they said.However, many municipalities have had success with the proposed schedule. Paige noted that Lake Saint Louis and O'Fallon already have a once-a-week trash pick-up, and St. Charles plans to adopt that schedule next year.

More information at: http://stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/08/17/news/sj2tn20080816-0817stc-trash0.ii1.txt

To Sort or Not To Sort in the Twin Cities

The thought is a natural one for those going through the chore of sorting their recyclables: Do I have to do this?

It's a question that even recycling haulers can't agree on. And as recycled materials fetch higher prices, the stakes are rising as they compete for contracts.

The big national haulers, No. 1 Waste Management and No. 2 Allied Waste Industries, which handle collections for about 300,000 households in the metro Twin Cities, are promoting a "single stream" system where customers put all recyclables -- paper, glass, plastic and metals -- into one cart. People prefer the convenience, so they recycle more, these companies argue.

Some Minnesota recycling haulers, including Eureka Recycling in St. Paul and Randy's Environmental Services out of Delano, advocate sticking with the traditional "double-stream" system, where households sort their recyclables into two groups: separating the paper from containers of glass, plastic and metal. Maybe the big carts increase collections, but all those materials gets smashed together inside, making them unusable, they argue.

The disagreement resurfaces periodically, as local governments bidding out the pickup contracts get hit with both sales pitches. And last month, Allied Waste said it's sweetening the pot by offering store coupons as customer rewards, which it's testing in three markets across the country, including the Twin Cities. The more a household recycles, the more coupons it wins, redeemable at scores of retailers as varied as grocery stores, Ikea and Target.com.

Looking for advice, cities went to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency as long as two years ago. The agency commissioned a report, by Tim Goodman & Associates in St. Louis Park, but by citing pros and cons for each it resolves little. "Right now, personally, I would have to give the edge to two-sort, in terms of the quality of the actual recycled materials," Goodman said. "But people still have disagreements, and they feel very strongly one way or the other."

Americans produce an average of 4.6 pounds of trash per person per day, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Minnesota is near the top of the states in recycling its trash -- at 43.2 percent of its solid waste, it is second only to Oregon. Market forces may start bumping up rates everywhere, however.

Commodities prices for the materials bailed or binned out of recycling centers -- to be remade into new water bottles, cans, and more -- are climbing steeply, with analysts citing once again voracious demand out of China. A ton of recycled newsprint in the New York market rose from $120 in January to $200 this month, said Mark Arzoumanian, editor of industry publication Official Board Markets. Comparable increases on the recyclables spot markets have aluminum priced at $2,000 a ton and plastics at $440 a ton.

That has haulers working to increase their emphasis on recycling, and the payoff is already showing up. At Allied Waste, for example, revenue from sales of recyclables rose 21 percent last year from 2006 to $257 million, according to its annual report.

Collecting coupons

One sign of Phoenix-based Allied Waste's growing interest in the recycling business is the new RecycleBank partnership that it's now marketing to metro-area communities. RecycleBank weighs the recyclables collections and awards store coupons to customers based on how much they recycle. Popular coupons among customers include local grocery stores, saving families as much as $20 a month on their food bills, said Ron Gonen, CEO of the Pennsylvania-based company.

Maple Grove is one community Allied Waste and RecycleBank have approached, because its current recycling contract expires at the end of this year, City Manager Al Madsen said. Madsen believes both the convenience of no sorting and the incentive program might appeal to city residents, and encourage recycling. And at least one resident agrees. "The easier you make it, the more people will do it," said Kristin Archer. And the coupons? "I totally think that when I'm considering whether to walk that tin can to the street, this would give me that little more incentive," Archer said.

Keeping it clean

Randy's Environmental Services just bet $8 million on double-stream recycling with a trash hauling and recycling facility it opened last summer. "The value of the commodities is better protected with the two streams," said Jim Wollschlager, operations director. "We just feel it's the better way of recycling."

The customers in Goodman's report agreed -- the paper mills and glass companies, for example, that buy the materials from recycling facilities. They told Goodman they're seeing a dramatic increase in contamination -- glass shards in paper and metal flecks in plastics -- that makes the materials worth less, or even worthless, he said.

On average, the report said, two-stream operations lost 6.4 percent of their materials to contamination, compared with 27.7 percent for single-stream operations. However, the buyers also told Goodman a lot depends on the facility, with some single-sort processors just as clean as the two-sorters. Wollschlager estimated Randy's at 3 to 4 percent. In an interview, Waste Management spokeswoman Julie Ketchum put contamination rates at its two Minnesota facilities at about 6 percent.

Still, many see a future of not less sorting, but more. One Burnsville household prefers more sorting. David and Mindy Limberg said they question how well their current single-source service really works. "It's easy for us, but I have less confidence all of it is getting recycled," David said.

In Wayzata, a Randy's Services client, residents sort "organics" -- such as food scraps, pizza boxes and full vacuum cleaner bags -- from their regular trash. City recycling coordinator Sonny Clark said Wayzata saves on dumping fees: $15 a ton for organics, compared with $50 for trash.

Minneapolis, which has residents sort their own recyclables into at least four groups -- paper, plastic, glass and metals -- earned $1.6 million on its recycling program last year, said recycling director Susan Young. "We were able to cover increased costs in fuel and personnel for 2008," Young said. "Water went up, sewer went up, and the storm-water fee went up, but the solid-waste fee stayed the same."

Resident Calls on Attorney General To Stop High Charges and Services Not Wanted

Another resident writes . . .

"Jay Nixon’s office asked that I fill out their complaint form. This recycling complaint was about Waste Management. WM had added many new charges to my father’s invoice. We are not participating in the recycling program. We received a reply from Jay Nixon, informing us they would look into WM and their high fees. I wish the Attorney General could come up with an angle, so my father could just opt-out. If nothing else, maybe WM would drastically reduce their fees, since we are not participating. (It’s a thought-)

The Amazing Waste of St. Louis County

The following are excerpts from a very interesting article from "St. Louis Magazine" June 2008. You may want to skip the sections below and go direct to the entire article on the web site at: http://tinyurl.com/4gkdhe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trash has always been an ugly nuisance to be left at the curb and dealt with by someone else, but a hot mess of controversy in the county has thrown it right back in everyone's face. And what a crazy, complex, fascinating mess it is.

Given the subject matter, "a mess" would seem like the most literary way to describe the state of trash hauling in St. Louis County, but then again, it wouldn't really be accurate. "An overly complex and multilayered system of public and private interests" might be more appropriate.

The county does not provide trash service of any kind. Its Solid Waste Managment Program, which falls under the purview of the Department of Public Health, has fewer than 10 employees, who spend most of their time conducting random compliance checks of trash haulers' trucks, inspecting the two active landfills and four transfer stations in the county and responding to your complaints about the guy next door whose idea of "lawn ornaments" more closely resembles household trash to anyone with a less creative interpretation of the term.

Because the county has no municipal trash system in place, that means it's up to its 91 municipalities to find a way to dispose of their own trash. Five provide trash-hauling service through their public works departments (Brentwood, Kirkwood, Normandy, University City and Valley Park), leaving 86 municipalities for private haulers to fight over. As of April, 75 of the remaining cities, villages and townships had contracts with private haulers to dispose of residential waste within their borders.

In some cities, like Frontenac, which contracts with Veolia Environmental Services, trash pickup is provided "free of charge"; "free," of course, being a relative term when city taxes are involved. In others, like Overland, residents pay Allied Waste directly, $53.88 every quarter.

Residents in the 11 remaining municipalities (Bellerive, Country Life Acres, Florissant, Huntleigh, Kinloch, Ladue, Riverview, Sunset Hills, Town & Country, Wellston and Westwood) can choose their hauler. And they've got plenty to choose from: 22 private haulers have a license to work inside the county.Until this spring, service levels varied from one municipality to the next: Some got once-a-week pickups for trash, recycling and yard waste. Others got twice-a-week trash pickup, once-a-week recycling and yard waste collec­tion if they wanted to pay extra. Some had trash and yard waste service but had to take any recyclables to their local recycling center.

Bryan Barcom at American Eagle Waste does think that any legislation that could ultimately put him out of business is, at the very least, unconstitutional. The bids for the first district were opened in late March, and the low bidder was Veolia Environmental Services, the waste-management division of an international company that operates everything from water-treatment plants to public transportation systems. Its bid for District 3 was $11.60 per month. Barcom says he's barely paying the bills by charging his South County customers $18 a month. "I can't bid at $11.60 and be profitable," he says. "It's not even an option to do that."

"We're going to make our best effort to make this thing work," he says. "The county enforces this great recycling program, and then they take a page out in the Suburban Journal that says, 'If you don't want this recycling cart, call this number, and we'll come and pick it up.' Why not take a full-page ad out and say, 'Please utilize this container to the best of your ability, because you will be charged for this service, whether you use it or not'?" He shakes his head. "It seems like they do everything ass-backwards."

Read the entire article at: http://stlmag.com/media/St-Louis-Magazine/June-2008/The-Amazing-Waste/

County's recycling effort helps environment and saves money

Letters to the Editor, St. L Post-Dispatch, May 24, 2008

St. Louis County is committed to the environment. The County Council's amendment to the Solid Waste Code requires trash haulers to provide curbside recycling. The county distributed 100,000 single-stream recycling bins so that more than 300,000 county residents can recycle material that would otherwise be put in landfills. St. Louis County is proud of its leadership role in stimulating greater levels of recycling. The county is not profiting from this program; the benefit comes from conserving scarce landfill space, reducing our dependence on oil and conserving vital strategic resources. Consolidating trash districts will help us reduce truck traffic on our streets, improve the quality of life in our unincorporated communities and reduce the number of properties that don't have trash service, reducing the likelihood of illegal dumping.

For several years, recycling has been a voluntary effort with too little participation to make a difference in the volume of trash entering landfills. The state has mandated that St. Louis County residents reduce the amount of trash being sent to our landfills by half before 2010. So we must increase our recycling volume. This easily can be achieved by through single-stream, curbside recycling; however, hauler participation cannot be optional. Everyone who generates trash must help manage trash effectively.

Private-sector profit is part and parcel of America's economic engine. If trash haulers and recycling centers can benefit financially from recycling, it proves that the free market is alive and well in America's heartland. Benefits will be reflected in hauling rates throughout unincorporated St. Louis County, just as it has already in our Trash District 3, going into service July 1. Residents in this northwest county district will pay $11.60 a month for the first year of full-service residential trash disposal, including once-a-week curbside collection of residential trash and single-stream recycling as well as twice-a-year bulky item pick-up. The low price is partly because of the value of the materials being recycled.

Apparent low bids for the next three districts range from $12.09 to $12.40 per month. The price for senior citizens would be between $10.88 and $11.16 per month. Bids for the remaining districts will be opened later this month.

Recycling is a personal choice. While we encourage it and support it, we understand that many residents ultimately will choose not to participate. I hope that all residents will, in time, embrace St. Louis County's efforts to be more responsible with our environment.

. . . Garry W. Earls Clayton
Chief Operating Officer, St. Louis County Government

St. Charles Council Considering Plan for Trash Hauling

The county's unincorporated areas would be split into trash collection districts each served by only one waste hauler under a proposal discussed Monday by the St. Charles County Council.

Council Chairman Dan Foust made the proposal after getting complaints from constituents about "the nuisance" of trucks from competing companies plying the same streets, especially in the St. Charles Hills neighborhood.

Under the current free-market system, Foust said, "You could have five trucks in the same day picking up trash" from different homes in the same subdivision. "There's no consistency for trash pickup times," said Foust, R-6th District. Foust added that street pavement deteriorates more quickly when multiple trucks make regular runs. Under his proposal, various companies would submit bids to the county to be selected as the single hauler in a district. He said he'd be willing to exempt outlying semi-rural areas.

Eleven companies have permits to operate anywhere in the county's unincorporated areas. A hauling district plan begun recently by St. Louis County for its unincorporated territory has caused a political ruckus. Some residents are upset that they no longer can choose between rival firms and have raised other issues.

Foust, who has yet to outline details of his plan, got support from Councilwoman Cheryl Hibbeler, D-1st District. However, Councilman Joe Brazil, R-2nd District, said he'd prefer simply requiring waste haulers to offer collection of recyclables. "You're eliminating competition," Brazil said of the district idea. "I don't think government needs to get involved in trying to regulate that."

Council members asked County Executive Steve Ehlmann's administration to prepare alternative legislation setting up hauling districts or just requiring firms to offer recycling collection. Ehlmann has yet to take a position on either.

In 2002, the council and the previous executive, Joe Ortwerth, decided to require haulers in the most populous unincorporated areas to offer curbside collection of recyclable items. But the county backed off after haulers announced higher-than-expected customer fees for recyclable pickups.

Frequently Asked Questions about Recycling, Recycling Carts, and Basic Trash Service in Saint Louis County

Questions and Answers are available from St. Louis County on the following subjects:

) What Changes Were Made To The Waste Code?
2) Why Were Changes Made To The Waste Code?
3) Why Has My Trash Bill Gone Up?
4) Why Wasn’t This Voted On?
5) Why Do I Have To Pay For Recycling If I Don’t Recycle?
6) Can I Still Recycle At My Local Church/School?
7) Why Can’t I Just Recycle At A Recycling Center?
8) I Live In A Municipality/Subdivision With An Existing Trash Hauling Contract. How Will We Be Affected?
9) When Can I Start To Recycle?
10) How Much Is Recycling Going To Cost Me?
11) Do I Have To Pay For Recycling Service If I Return My Recycling Cart?
12) My Subdivision Opted Out … Why Did I Get A Recycling Cart?
13) Who Is Responsible For The Recycling Cart?
14) If My Recycling Cart Needs To Be Serviced, Whom Do I Call?
15) When Will My Recycling Cart Be Picked Up If I Don’t Want It?
16) How am I supposed to afford the new basic trash service?
17) Who Else Can I Talk To About This Program?

Vist here for more info: http://www.stlouisco.com/index.cfm?ViewMe=11362

TOWN OF NIAGARA: The trash talk is over

One of the last New York municipalities to offer curbside recycling is finally coming into compliance.Town of Niagara officials hosted a public informational meeting Tuesday to update residents on the start of its curbside program on June 30. While the town has technically been recycling in a different manner for years, it has been in violation of state law.

Once curbside recycling begins on June 30, the blue bins will be picked up on residents’ normal trash days by Allied Waste, the parent company of BFI. Both the recycling and trash pickup service is provided free to the town due to its host community agreement with Allied Waste.

Read more here: http://www.niagara-gazette.com/communities/local_story_127220646.html?keyword=topstory

Some Toledo, OH Residents Talk Trash About New Rate Structure

Seventy-nine year old Yvonne Bigley has three words for her fellow Toledo residents who have lamented the city's monthly trash collection fee: "Get over it. I love the fee. It's completely worth it," Mrs. Bigley said from her Tamarack Drive home in South Toledo.

"All these people quibbling about $3 or $4 a month to have everything hauled away," she said. "What do you think people would pay for someone to haul it away to a dump, or what you would pay in gas to take it yourself?"

Starting tomorrow, Toledo's trash fee jumps from $5.50 a month to $7 for those who don't recycle. Recyclers will pay $2 - down from $3.

Even at the increased $7 a month, Toledoans - who have unlimited trash and bulk pickup - will pay less than what suburban residents pay for garbage collection.

In Ottawa County's village of Genoa, residents pay $10.62 monthly and are limited to four bags plus recyclables. Residents of Lake Township in Wood County pay $113 a year for unlimited trash and recycling pickup.

In Fulton County's Swanton Township, residents have free pickup just once a month. If people want to have refuse picked up weekly, it costs $10.67 monthly for a two-bag limit or $18 for unlimited pickup.Toledoan Thomas Forbush, 63, thinks any fee is too much.

"Right now, I live in a mobile home park and they are discriminating against us by not allowing us to get a reduced rate," Mr. Forbush said. "I don't recycle, and I'm not recycling until I can get the reduced rate."

For the rest of the story, visit: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080504/NEWS16/805040332

City in bind over trash

Calgary's waste and recycling department is facing a $17-million operating shortfall over the next three years, raising alarms about how the services are funded.

It's a problem that will only get worse as Calgary becomes greener, since less garbage means fewer tipping fees are collected at the landfills. Tipping fees raise about $30.5 million of the department's $65-million budget.

Right now, Calgary homeowners pay about $2.50 each month to have a truck drive down their street and remove the garbage. The actual cost of the service is about twice that, with the difference made up by non-residential property taxes.

That number doesn't include the cost of dealing with the garbage once it's dumped in one of the city's three landfills, which face growing, and expensive, environmental regulations.

As well, it costs Calgary taxpayers nothing to recycle -- the drop-off depots located around the city are paid for entirely through the tipping fees from commercial and industrial clients. Homeowners will begin paying for recycling next year, when curbside pickup, with its $8 a month charge, kicks in.

But the depot system will continue for those who live in condos or apartments, still covered by tipping fees. Those fees also pay for the cost of picking up yard waste, Christmas trees and discarded jack o' lanterns.

More at: http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=3f421876-0818-46f6-8559-75aed49bbc1f