RecyclingMonster - While James City County relies on a regional contractor to collect residents’ curbside recycling now, there’s a possibility the county government could decide to carry out that task, as well as solid-waste collection, on its own in the future. A new program could be underway in a year.
Conversation about a go-it-alone solution to county residents’ waste disposal needs comes after the county’s switch to a user-fee based recycling service in October. The county signed a five-year contract with the Virginia Peninsulas Public Service Authority in January 2019, which brought in a new contractor, Tidewater Fibre Corp., to actually collect the recycling.
As part of the fiscal year 2020 budget, the county allocated $1.8 million, most of which was to be generated by a $7 per-month user fee, to collect recycling. The fee-based service came as a response to changes in the global recycling market caused by a Chinese ban on imports of American recyclables in 2018, and the industry still finds itself in flux.
“We’d like staff to be prepared to provide some options to us on a transition to a county program for both recycling and solid waste. That’s one that may be forced on us sooner than we think,” Board Chairman Jim Icenhour said during a Board of Supervisors retreat Saturday. “We probably need to have a little prep work ready.”
The county is just a year into its five-year VPPSA contract for curbside recycling service. County Attorney Adam Kinsman said the county would be able to back out of the contract if so desired. The contract states if the county doesn’t appropriate funds for the collection service, the contract is terminated. The county doesn’t offer trash pickup or have a similar arrangement to its recycling contract. Residents can opt to hire one of several private garbage collectors for curbside collection.
With the contract still young, the county has some time to figure out what changes it wants to make and get the word out to people who would be affected by the change, Supervisor Michael Hipple said.
“We’re one year into it. We got four years left to come up with a plan and to educate our small haulers that this is a possibility where we are going,” he said.
There are many questions yet to be answered about the nature of the program, County Administrator Scott Stevens said in a phone call Monday. Among those questions: Would the county require all residents use its service, or allow residents to select from multiple service providers? Where would the service be offered? Would it be a truly county-provided service, with county employees and resources assigned to collect refuse, or would the county employ a contractor?
The goal is a service that could be provided to county residents at a lower rate than they currently pay for refuse collection. Staff expects to have some information in front of supervisors within the next couple months. That information would lay out some different options the county could pursue in order to get a sense of what supervisors want to do moving forward, Stevens said. He anticipated the county could implement the program in part or whole in a year.
Courtesy : www.dailypress.com
