Should Decatur Mandate Multi-Family Dwellings To Recycle Through the City?
Decatur Metro | March 24, 2011Now, before you answer – a little background.
Back in 2007, the Decatur City Commission passed an ordinance requiring multi-family dwellings throughout the city provide recycling services to their residents. However, the ordinance did not require that multi-family properties use the City of Decatur’s sanitation services. If they wanted, they could contract with third party collection services, as long as paper, glass, metal, and plastic recycling was offered.
Flash forward to this past Monday when Asst. City Manager David Junger was before the commission this past Monday discussing “Sanitation Fee Schedule” for the coming year and the 2.2% fee increase that single-family residential will see on their April 1st tax bill. Concerned about the elevated rate (due primarily to gas prices and less revenue), Mayor Floyd began questioning Mr. Junger and the City Manager Peggy Merriss about the trash and recycling collection at multi-family residences.
Why bring that up? In the words of the mayor “…that’s where the money is.”
“Money in trash and recycling collection?” you may be thinking. Yes. As was discussed in our recent “scavenging post”, recyclables can bring in a good amount of change.
And as was mentioned during the discussion, the reason that third-party companies even consider collecting multi-family trash is because they can collect a tidy profit, especially since it takes just 5 minutes for two guys to collect a huge dumpster of trash and recycling. Compare that to the time it takes the city to collect in a residential neighborhood with as many residents as the Artisan.
With all of that in mind, at the end of the conversation, the mayor asserted that if it was currently costing Decatur tax payers money to allow third-party collection at multi-family dwellings, then maybe they/we should have a conversation about requiring these residences to use the city’s services.
So, with all that in mind, do you think Decatur should mandate multi-family to recycle through the city?
yes
Yes! They should do this. It just makes sense.
yes
I have no dog (or cat or honey badger) in this fight. However, if multi-family dwellings are recycling and using that money to keep rents low, then the city grabbing that revenue stream for itself will force a rise in rents. How will that help with keeping a diverse population?
Even if you did have a honey badger in this fight, he wouldn’t care.
Unless you are a cobra. Then he might be sleepy.
Sleepy, but then it’ll wake up and eat.
If mandated, what would multi-family units be charged? Should they subsidize pickup for single-family units?
You write that “Back in 2007, the Decatur City Commission passed an ordinance requiring multi-family dwellings throughout the city provide recycling services to their residents.” Well, that is not happening in the multifamily apartment complex that I live in. How does the city enforce this law? Do they?
Absolutely!!! Recycling at multi-family residences is where you get the most bang for the recycling effort. I never understood why the City of Atlanta did not provide this service to its multi-family residences, instead sending its trucks from house to house collecting recyclables. What a waste (pun intended)!
yes
I don’t think that the city made over $2 million selling our trash. The markets for recyclables are not that strong. It would be helpful to get some clarification. From the city commission’s packet for the other night’s meeting, it appears that the $2 million figure is revenue for sanitation, which comes from the fees we pay for sanitation service (the fees they were discussing at the meeting). The same document notes that recycling services cost the city $89 per ton. Collecting trash or recyclables has a cost. For recycling, it’s usually less because there is some revenue for the materials, but it’s usually not a money maker.
Good point. I’ll clarify that.
Agreed. Recyclables are a profit source, but they are heavily dependent on markets. Markets peaked leading up to the Beijing Olympics (who do you think was buying all that material?), but crashed immediately afterward, caught up in the overall recession. They’ve rebounded since, but not to the same levels. All of which to say, I’m highly skeptical Decatur pulled down $2 mil. from recyclables alone.
AMB is absolutely correct. Third party companies are historically much cheaper and any additional cost would be passed on to the residents. Not sure how many multi-family units the city has within its boarders but that could strain existing service and there might be a need to expand the department. That cost could potentially offset any real monetary gain.
How does the profit margin compare for trash collection and recycling collection, at multi-family properties? What proportion of recyclables are currently being separated from the waste stream at those properties? (Bet it’s not nearly as high as it is at single-family homes where there’s a clear financial incentive.) How could the City enforce Pay-As-You-Throw at properties where many households are depositing their bagged trash into a single dumpster?
The argument about whether or not third parties would be less expensive should be left until the City decides what its rate would be.
It’s interesting that the City’s recycling service is provided by a third party in Walton County. That said, I’m unsure why any multi-family dwelling would use another provider, as Latham Home Sanitation (the City vendor) offers the most comprehensive selection at a cost that, at last check, is below that charged by competing vendors that do not pickup as many different items.
I would certainly be in favor of requiring all residents (residential and multi-family) to recycle and levying heavy fines for any recyclable items found in regular trash. That would be more challenging to enforce with multi-family developments, since trash pickup is generally provided by third-party vendors that offer services the City cannot provide (such as picking up compacting dumpsters).
Carl,
You’ve hit on one of the caveats of this debate. At surface level, multi-family housing looks like a recycling goldmine and much more profitable than single-family residential. But in practice, it’s not that simple. The main reason is it’s much harder to police recyclables from multi-family buildings. Everything’s going into one big pile, so if someone is consistently contaminating the valuable material with non-recyclable trash, it’s harder to figure out who. All it takes is a little bit of food or other contaminants to ruin a batch of recyclables (depending on the material), negating its value.
Yes.
We’re all city residents, why not use the same recycling pickup?
yes yes.
I don’t think any of the “yes” people have addressed the original point that AMB was making. Could a mandated single waste hauler mean higher rents for those people living in multi-family dwellings? Will that potentialy alter the diversity that the City of Decatur prides itself upon? There are benefits/negatives to renting and benefits/negatives to owning a home. Obviously, the city wants to make more money but at what expense?