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Early returns indicate Wichita's latest residential trash plan is getting a better response than the last one.
Hardly a negative word came out of Tuesday's workshop, when the City Council heard about the pay-as-you-throw plan from City Manager Robert Layton.
Certainly there isn't the noisy backlash that arose about a year ago when Layton proposed to create a trash cooperative, assigning haulers to specific areas of town and charging a flat fee of $20 a month for trash pickup.
The resounding outcry: "Stay out of our trash."
Layton says that's exactly what he's trying to do with the latest proposal.
The plan would allow customers to retain their right to choose their hauler. They would 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.
"If you're happy with your service, there's nothing that's going to compel you to do it differently than you are doing today," Layton said after the meeting.
He has said the plan wouldn't raise costs for customers, but prices could go down, if they toss less trash. The haulers will determine their prices; some were not ready Tuesday to say how the plan might affect prices.
Layton will ask the council to vote on the plan Oct. 11. It wouldn't be implemented until Nov. 1, 2012.
"At first blush, I think Bob is on target," council member Jeff Longwell said. "We ought to market it as, 'Your trash, your choice, we listened.' "
Jeff Curtis, 54, was among those who objected to the trash cooperative plan.
"I think this is better than the first one," Curtis said. "I'm an avid recycler. I don't mind paying for it. I may go down to the smaller container."
Darlene Rozar, 64, said she welcomes the chance to pay less for a smaller container because she throws away only one or two bags of trash per month.
"I just don't have much trash," she said.
Haulers to pay more
Haulers would be required to offer recycling, which isn't the case now.
Except for some 65-gallon carts that Waste Management provides for seniors, haulers offer only 96-gallon containers. All companies would have to purchase the 65-gallon carts.
Haulers agreed that would be an expense, but a manageable one. The difference between the two sizes is $10 to $15, they say.
"This is very doable," said David Lies, vice president of Lies Trash Service and president of the Independent Haulers Association.
Chris Ballinger, of Ballinger Trash Service, said, "We want to stay in business; we want to make money. If this is what we have to do, I guess it's what we'll do."
A 10-year contract that goes with the plan would give the haulers time to recapture the costs of the new carts and perhaps a new truck to handle the recycling, city officials said.
To help cover administrative costs, the city would triple the amount it charges to haulers to license each truck to $450.
Based on the 172 trucks now operating in the city, the new fee would increase the city's take by $51,600 to $77,400.
Layton said the charge was going to go up next year anyway, probably to about $300. The additional charge is for staff to oversee the plan, making sure that all haulers adhere to the rules and offer smaller carts and recycling.
The city had been losing about $30,000 annually in administrating the trash service, which includes annual inspections of trucks, city officials said.
The city also would provide a website that will allow citizens to share what they are paying for trash and recycling services.
Recycling market
Lies said the new plan wouldn't cause his company to bump up prices. Others weren't so quick to say what would happen.
"With the truck licensing fees going up, it's hard to say," said Carrie Spencer, a spokesperson for Waste Management. "But we really like the idea that residents control what they pay. The recycling continues to divert trash from the landfill."
Ballinger said his company probably wouldn't raise prices unless tipping fees — the cost haulers pay to deliver their trash to a transfer station — go up.
Rozar said she takes most of her recyclables to Dillons and wonders why she should pay someone to pick them up.
"We're giving it to them, and then they're selling it," she said.
Lies' company separates recycled items at its own plant and makes some money, although none for tin. Ballinger said his company currently takes in only paper, plastics and aluminum cans and hauls them unseparated to a recycling plant.
"We don't get paid a penny for it," Ballinger said.
Layton acknowledged the recycling market has dried up for some items.
State, county rules
City officials have spent the last six months working out the proposal.
"It allows the free market to totally operate and yet it still comes in compliance with the county," Longwell said.
Council member Michael O'Donnell said, "We should tell Sedgwick County to get out of our trash."
But the city is required to make changes to its trash plan to adhere to state and county rules.
In the early 1990s, the state began promoting less trash and required every county to design something that worked toward that goal. Those plans are updated each year.
Sedgwick County's current plan requires that cities have a volume-based approach and offer curbside recycling, said Susan Erlenwein, the county's director of environmental resources.
Wichita has not met that criteria, but the plan presented to the council Tuesday would do that.
In making his case for the plan to the council, Layton said, "There is limited space in Kansas for landfills. We would have to take trash out of state (if current ones fill up)."
Most of Wichita's trash is taken to Plumb Thicket Landfill in Harper County, which is owned by Waste Connections and opened in January 2006.
A down economy has slowed the amount of trash being taken to Plumb Thicket.
Jim Spencer, a company vice president, said the landfill has 64 years of estimated life remaining. He said that is based on it taking in 2,000 tons per day. It has averaged only 1,800 tons daily since the economy took a plunge.
Layton said that trend could change and even exceed the original intake expectations.
He said it's hard to find land for new landfills because of environmental and zoning requirements, plus objections from those living near proposed landfills. The county tried and failed to locate a landfill in Sedgwick County before opting to send trash to the landfill in Harper County.
An Environmental Protection Agency study has found that communities that used pay-as-you-throw experienced a 25 percent to 45 percent reduction in waste.
