UPDATE (11/28/2012): The City Commission has decided to table the proposed increase and recycling program for the time being to allow for further discussion and consideration.
The City of Bismarck held a press conference today regarding proposed changes to the city’s waste removal, which would add just over $4 monthly to each resident’s waste collection bill to a grand total of $13.59/mo. The press conference also touched upon plans to implement a curbside recycling program. Percentage-wise, it’s about a 42% increase.
Excluding a twenty-cent surcharge mandated by the state in 2005, Bismarck residents have not seen a noticeable increase in their waste collection bill in over fifteen years, according to the City.
A study conducted by the city suggests that the current landfill site will be exhausted within 13 years.
Regarding curbside recycling, the City is actively negotiating a recycling contract that it projects will add between $2.51-$3.51 monthly to each resident’s bill. This is in addition to the $4 increase mentioned above.
The current recycling proposal will include single-family, duplexes, triplexes, and four-plexes. Apartment-style units may be added later down the road.
The Missouri Valley Resources Council recently submitted a petition in support of curbside recycling to the City Commission. The petition contained 620 signatures.
The City Commission is expected to further discuss, and possibly vote on, curbside recycling at tomorrow night’s meeting.
Personally, I do believe that the time may be right to implement curbside recycling, but the process has to be reasonably simple for residents to actually accept and adapt to it. An additional $3 or so won’t break the bank for residents.
I do have some concerns over the need of hauling out two separate containers, one each for garbage and recycling. For instance, my street has several homes that have no off-street parking. Naturally, this means a street filled with parked cars. Because of this, there already are issues with regards to placing the garbage containers each week. Adding yet another container to each home increases that issue. But, I do support recycling and believe that this can be a solvable problem.
You can ready more about Bismarck’s waste collection plans here:
http://www.bismarck.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=4900
