Trash can deal trashed

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

A plan to spend over half a million dollars to purchase almost 12,000 new plastic trash cans in Key West has been postponed while city officials try to get a better deal.

City Manager Jim Scholl pulled a resolution off of the May 5 city commission meeting that proposed spending $538,000 to purchase 11,664 new 65-gallon trash carts. Key West was “piggy-backing” on a trash can contract between the city of Deerfield Beach, Fla., and Rehrig Pacific Co. to supply that city with new trash cans. By adding Key West’s order to that of Deerfield Beach, both cities would be able to combine their order to get a lower price from the manufacturer.

But another manufacturer came forward before city commissioners could vote on the contract, Scholl said. As a result, the resolution was pulled while negotiations with the unnamed manufacturer proceed.

“We thought we had the best financial option,” Scholl said about the deal with Rehrig Pacific. “We think we’ve got a better deal and a better way to do it. We want to make sure we’re getting the best value.”

Under the terms of the city’s trash collection contract with Waste Management, Key West is responsible for providing trash carts to 11,138 residential properties that do not use a dumpster for garbage collection. Since the minimum order required from Rehrig Pacific was 11,663 carts, the city had planned on storing the extra 526 wheeled cans at the Rockland Key Transfer Station to be used as spare inventory.

“Residential trash carts currently in use are up to 15 years old, and have exceeded their expected useful life. Injection molded carts typically have a 10 year service life. Existing trash carts should be replaced,” Key West Utilities Director John Paul Castro told Scholl in a memo last month.

No matter which manufacturer is selected by the city, the new cans will be downsized from the current 96 gallons to 65 gallons. The idea is to encourage residents to increase the amount of recycled materials put out to the curb each week. By shrinking the size of the trash can, officials are hoping residents begin to separate out the recyclables in their trash stream.

“That’s the main reason,” Scholl said about the can downsizing. “Plus the 64s match up better to the recycle bin size.”

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