Change trash pick-up back to twice a week: Yaniz
BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Potentially coming full circle, Key West City Commissioner Tony Yaniz is advocating returning to twice weekly trash pick-up despite concerns from environmentalists that the move could hurt recycling efforts.
Yaniz told the city commission and City Manager Jim Scholl that he will put forth a new resolution proposing to change the current contract with trash hauler Waste Management from a once a week schedule where trash, recycling and yard waste are picked up the same day, to twice weekly trash collection. Yaniz, speaking during the June 16 city commission meeting, did not say whether he wanted recycling and yard waste collection to change, as well.
“The garbage cans in my district have no recycling in them but they have a lot of stink and a lot of maggots,” he said. “My district wants twice a week pick-up.”
Key West jumpstarted its recycling efforts in 2013, when the city reduced its trash collection schedule from twice a week to once. The move caused trash bins to fill more quickly, encouraging residents to sort out the recyclable material and put it in a separate container. At the same time, the city replaced 18-gallon blue recycle bins with a 65-gallon model. Those two actions resulted in a jump in residential recycling rates from seven percent to approximately 22 percent in the following three weeks. That rate increased to 26 percent in 2014.
But the original seven-year, $53 million contract renewal with Waste Management a year ago caused an upheaval in city government when a majority of city commissioners went against staff recommendations. Utilities department staff had recommended that the challenging bidder, Advanced Disposal Services, be awarded the contract because it offered a lower bid to continue the once a week trash collection schedule.
Commissioners voted 4-3 to keep Waste Management in place. To do that and still pick the low bidder, however, they had to select the most expensive of four options requested by city staff: increasing residential pickup to twice a week and turning management of the city’s transfer station over to Waste Management. Two members of the city Sustainability Advisory Committee resigned in protest of the twice-weekly collection schedule, saying it would hurt efforts to increase recycling rates in the city.
But once the contract was signed, a majority of the commission changed its mind a few months later and voted to change the Waste Management contract to once a week trash collection, a move that saved property owners about $35 a month in higher fees.
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I live in Tony’s district and voted for Tony, but we don’t always agree on everything. What would be the fun in that. The issue of once or twice a week garbage pick up is one of those times when i disagree with him. I haven’t taken an official poll of yeas and nays, but I don’t think Tony has either. Anyway, he never asked me or my wife and we are fine with once a week. Half the garbage truck noise, pollution and traffic hold up are three good reasons to stick with once a week. If our can stinks, we wash it once in a while. When we have nasty fish or animal waste we stick it in the freezer until the night before pick up. People adjust given time. Once a week just makes sense to us. Thanks.