Print edition: 
Wichita's city manager hopes pay-as-you-throw will be the way to go when it comes to trash.
A plan to set up a trash cooperative with a $20-a-month universal rate last year set off a firestorm of protest from residents who said they already paid less and wanted to keep choosing their own haulers.
City Manager Robert Layton will present a revised trash-hauling plan to the City Council during a workshop Tuesday.
That plan would allow customers to retain their right to choose their hauler, pay according to how much trash they toss and recycle if they want. Recycling would be single stream, meaning all items would be placed into one container every other week.
Companies would be required to offer recycling, and their annual city permit fee would triple to $450 for each truck.
Companies also would have to buy 65-gallon carts to accommodate customers who use less trash. All but one of the 20 haulers operating in the city have only 96-gallon carts.
In return, the city would provide a 10-year contract with haulers.
"This is what I'm recommending at this point," Layton said, "but it's still subject to review and modification by the council."
The plan to reduce the city's waste comes after months of discussions and wrangling. The city gave up on the cooperative proposal that would have given consumers trash pickup, recycling and once-a-year bulk waste pickup for $20 a month.
Many residents scoffed at the plan, saying they valued choosing their own company and that they had negotiated deals that come out to less than $20 a month.
In an informal survey conducted by The Eagle late last year, residents reported trash charges ranging from $21 to $108 per quarter. The median quarterly bill was $54.62.
Changes for consumers
Layton said the plan he'll show the council Tuesday brings together what he heard from residents during public meetings and from surveys.
One of the chief concerns is the inequity of charges, since they are the same no matter how much trash is thrown out. The new proposal will address that problem, Layton said.
Prices should not go up for residents, he said.
"That's the reason for leaving the free market in place," he said. "It would keep prices
in place."
To help do that, the city will have a website that will allow citizens to put in the prices they are being charged by what company and the nature of the service.
David Lies, vice president of Lies Trash Service and president of the Independent Haulers Association, said the new plan shouldn't mean prices will go up for residents and could go down if they recycle.
"That's the way they wanted it to work," he said, "and that's the way it will work. If you're able to reduce your trash, you'll be able to save money."
For example, he would add a service that charges $50.75 per quarter for a 65-gallon cart and no additional bags. His other charges would remain the same: $60.75 per quarter for a 96-gallon cart, plus 10 bags; $78.75 per quarter for two 96- gallon carts, plus 10 bags.
Lies' charge for recycling is $6 per quarter and would remain the same, he said.
For those who could drop from a single 96-gallon cart to a 65-gallon size, that's a $10 savings.
"As long as nothing happens drastically (to the plan)," Lies said, "we're not going to change that price. The website should take care of some people charging higher."
He said having a 10-year agreement is important because haulers will make considerable investments to buy new carts.
A 65-gallon cart costs $55 to $60, Lies said. Ninety-six gallon carts are $70 each.
He said it was also important that the city enforces the rules and requires all of the companies to offer recycling.
"I don't want to have to provide all the services and the competition does not," Lies said. "If we're going to have to buy new carts and play by the rules, we need everyone to play by the same rules so someone isn't out there just hauling trash and doing it cheaper."
If that happens, he said, "I think this is very beneficial to the citizens."
Changes for haulers
Layton said enforcement is the whole purpose of the 10-year agreement.
He said it was necessary to increase the permit fee to cover the city's administrative costs. It has been at $150 per truck since 1990.
The city has been losing about $30,000 per year in costs to administer the trash service, which includes annual inspections of the trucks, said Corinne Bannon, who works in the city's finance department.
There are 172 trucks licensed to operate in the city. Increasing the fee to $450 would increase the city's take by $51,600, to $77,400.
Layton plans to have the council vote on the plan Oct. 11. A month later, haulers will be asked to submit their plans to comply with the new regulations, including showing they have smaller containers to accommodate those who have less trash.
Haulers would then have about a year to acquire the smaller carts before they must implement the plan by Nov. 1, 2012.
