Within a year Phoenix residents may be able to take part in new trash and recycling programs aimed at reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills.
During an Oct. 8 transportation and infrastructure subcommittee meeting, city officials presented four initiatives to increase the amount of waste diverted from landfills from 16 percent to 40 percent by 2020.
This proposal will introduce three different services for residents to dispose of their trash. According to John Trujillo, assistant director of public works, the fourth step of the plan will include education and community outreach.
A highly debated on-call bulk trash program was proposed that would limit bulk trash pick-up to two dates per year, rather than the current four. Residents would not have scheduled dates for the pick-ups, but instead would call and arrange a time with the city.
Director of public works Neil Mann said he believed this would save city resources because many people within urban Phoenix areas do not use their allotted bulk trash pick-ups.
“Very few residents actually use bulk collection … on average it’s probably about 300 pounds of material per resident per year,” Trujillo said.
Councilwoman Thelda Williams questioned whether reducing the amount of bulk pick-ups would encourage residents to dump their trash in the desert, a problem she said the city faced in the past.
“People still dump out there to avoid having to go to the transfer station … by reducing it but not increasing the size or the amount that you pick-up, twice a year is another concern,” she said.
Trujillo said that because of programs that have been implemented in the past years, the illegal dumping that Williams fears is not a practical issue to the city.
Despite this, Mann said he believes the reduced amount of bulk pick-up could be accounted for with another program, the Curbside Green Organics collection. For a monthly fee, residents could use a tan trash bin for landscape clippings and horse manure disposal. These bins would be emptied weekly, like normal trash collection.
According to Mann, a pilot program offered the tan bins to 220 residents for $8 per month.
“Of the 220 residents, 180 of them asked for tan containers,” Trujillo said.
According to Trujillo, only 13 of the people in the pilot program used two bulk pick-up collections because of the tan bins.
Another initiative that both Mann and Trujillo hope will reduce the amount of waste entering landfills is the Pay-As-You-Throw solid waste collection system. Residents are currently paying $26.80 monthly for 90-gallon trash and recycling bins. This new program would give people the option to opt for a 60-gallon trash bin and a lower monthly fee.
Mann said this will give people a financial incentive to sort their recycling. Though a final price has not determined, Mann’s presentation predicted the fee for a 60-gallon trash bin and 90-gallon recycling bin would be between $21-$23 per month.
For those residents using 300-gallon alley trash collection services, Mann said the entire block would have to decide as a whole to change to curbside collection before they could partake in the Pay-As-You-Throw service.
Trujillo said these initiatives would at the most increase diversion rates from landfills to 30 percent. He said in order to reach the 40 percent goal by 2020, more long-term systems need to be implemented.
Trujillo also added that in order for these systems to be effective, the city would have to enact all programs together, rather than approving just one or two.
Official fees will be released once the program makes its way through City Council. Because of dissenting opinions among Councilwoman Williams and Councilman Jim Waring, both Mann and Trujillo decided to offer a revised proposal at the next transportation and infrastructure subcommittee meeting.
Trujillo said he expects revisions might be made to the bulk trash collection program, perhaps offering it three times a year, or keeping the current four collection dates.
Mann said he hoped both the Pay-As-You-Throw program and the Curbside Green Organics would be able to start in July 2014, but revising the program might push that date back.
Contact the reporter at clongbon@asu.edu
