Improve/organize residential trash, recycling and organics collection by private and/or public operations and offer significant volume-based pricing on residential garbage and/or incentives for recycling.
Note that pre-2018 entries of cities organizing their solid waste collection service are found under BPA 22.6.
Hauler Licensing:
The MPCA's Tools for local government (NOTE: the tools are under re-construction. Contact us for information.) includes options grouped into “good,” “better” and “best” actions organized under the 2 categories of collection & ordinances/licensing. Documents to help cities adopt these actions include license templates, a hauler services agreement template, 3 Request for Proposal frameworks, and an organized collection flow chart.
Dakota Valley Recycling's Neighborhood Block Rate Program provides guidance for residents who live on the same street, cul-de-sac or neighborhood to arrange for the same hauler to collect their garbage and recyclables.
Use the MnDOT calculator to estimate the money organized collection saves a city and its taxpayers in reduced road wear-and-tear. Estimates of annual cost savings from reduced road impact from organized garbage trucks in various cities include $188,000 to $376,000 (Roseville), $120,000 to $300,000 (Oakdale), and $150,000 (Robbinsdale).
Pay-As-You-Throw:
SMART BET (Saving Money and Reducing Trash Benefit Evaluation Tool) from the U.S. EPA helps community waste managers with unit-based pricing for solid waste management (also known as Pay-As-You-Throw or PAYT).
See WasteZero for bag-based PAYT consulting and operations.
Require trash haulers to follow the city-organized recycling collection schedule; require organized collection of residential recyclables; publish hauler rates on city's web site & require waste/recyclables tonnage reports as a condition of licensing; assist residents on X% of city blocks to arrange for 75%+ of houses to contract with 1 trash hauler; set at least a 25% price differential among 3 cart size/frequency categories (~30, 60, 90-gallons); provide a financial or other incentive (e.g. larger container) for recycling. Report compostables collection under BPA 22.5.
Offer bi-weekly trash collection, ideally paired with weekly recycling (and organics); organize city-wide collection of recyclables, yard waste, source-separated organics; limit downward licensed trash haulers as haulers merge or otherwise forfeit their licenses.
Organize trash collection; use a bag-based PAYT (pay as you throw) garbage system; contract with one/multiple, zoned haulers for trash & multi-materials, either via RFP (if previous contract) or via hauler negotiations; note estimated cost savings/decreased air pollution to residents and to city (from decreased truck traffic); note if trucks use compressed natural gas (as city license condition?); achieve 50% recycling & 10% composting rate.
Who's doing it
Bloomington - 3 star
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed: 2015
Implementation details:
The City of Bloomington organized garbage, recycling and yard waste collection in October 2016. This program is provided to all Bloomington residents who live in single family homes. Collection is handled by a six member consortium, the Bloomington Haulers, LLC. Program administration and billing is handled by the City of Bloomington Public Works and Finance departments.
The prices for garbage collection differ by cart size. The smallest cart at 35 gallons is $10.14/month, medium 68 gallon is $13.67/month and a large 90 gallon container is $17.18/month. These prices are less than the average price a Bloomington resident was paying before organized collection.
We have mandatory city wide organized collection of solid waste, recycling, yard waste and organics(new this year) for the last 30 plus years. Our garbage hauler tracks our solid waste and recycling collection. We have always maximized our SCORE funds from Anoka County and actually receive left over funds due to our high percentage of recycling.
The city launched its organized solid waste program on 10/4/21, offering biweekly trash collection and trash prices following a "pay as you throw" model. Per state statute, the 3 haulers in the city each operate within their own zone, decreasing operating emissions. Cost savings depend on services rendered but 90+% of residents saved on their recycling price in 2021/22, and 60-80+% of residents saved on their trash prices (depending on cart size).
The City contracts with Waste Management for city-wide organized garbage collection, and recycling collection for all properties four-units and smaller. Garbage is collected weekly. Recycling is collected biweekly. The rate that residents are charged for garbage depends on the size of their garbage cart. Each resident receives a credit on their utility bill for recycling. The City contracts with Curbside Waste to collect organics weekly.
The City of St. James just accepted a contract with West Central Sanitation to pick up solid waste for its residents. Residents can choose from different sized carts for their garbage pick up. West Central only uses trucks that use natural gas, making it much quieter and greener.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
The City of St. James partners with West Central Sanitation to ensure that every household in the city has garbage pick up. West Central provides the carts and they also do the billing.
The city of saint peter contracts with a local waste hauler to provide residential refuse and recycling service to all the residents. Services include curbside recycling. Recyclables include glass bottles, metal beverages and food cans, plastic and paper from newspaper, magazines, junk mail, non-coated food, paper boxes, small flat pieces of corrugated cardboard.
The City of Shakopee has established and organized a collection schedule for refuse once a week and recycling every other week following a collection route map; Republic Services provided quarterly waste/recyclables tonnage reports as a condition of licensing; all single-family dwellings, duplexes, triplexes, and other residential units are required to have refuse service from Republic Services.
Republic Services provides residential weekly trash collection and biweekly recycling including yard waste if so desired.
The City of Shakopee contracts with one hauler for residential collections; the City has found a 96% recycling participation rate.
By ordinance, the City of Detroit Lakes requires garbage haulers to provide curbside recycling and waste removal. Curbside recycling evolved in 2017 to single-stream recycling to improve participation and collected tonnage.
The City of Golden Valley approved a new organized recycling contract and established an organized curbside organics recycling program starting in January 2022 for all 1-4 unit residences. One hauler, Republic Services, will pick up recycling and organics while trash hauling and yard waste collection remain in an open market system with multiple haulers.
Encourage recycling by developing our contract to include a recycle option.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Waste Management has provided special 64 gallon carts to each residence and picks up the containers bi-weekly. Additionally we have expanded the number of items that can be recycled. The economic incentive is that residents can reduce their garbage output from a large container to a small container which reduces their garbage expense from $19.04 per month to $12.30 per month. Furthermore, it allows residents to go from a once a week pckup to once every other week which reduces their cost from $12.30 to $8.98 per month. We educated residents about this recycling opportunity in our newsletter and at public meetings. The community response has been terrific and we estimate that we have improved our recycling by 80%. Currently we are in discussion with our contractor to expand this recycling effort to businesses and to expand the amount and type of materials that the contractor will agree to pickup.
Part of the new single hauler waste plan is a use rate, where, with the monitoring of computer chips in the garbage cans, the hauler records the frequency of that specific bin is collection and determines the residences trash fee based on that data with residence getting breaks if they are gone 3 weeks or more.
The price for pick up depends on the size of the bins. 95 gallon $13.32, 20 Gallon $9.52, and 20 gallon picked up every other week $7.02.
There is a decrease in cost to the resident if they choose bi-weekly trash pickup instead of weekly.
Cottage Grove has a Recycling Incentive Program.
Every resident has an opportunity to win prizes for your recycling efforts. Each week City staff draws two residence addresses at random, checks to see if their recycling bin is out and has recyclable material in it. If it does, the City awards a prize to the resident.
Residents can save $19 a year by switching from a 90 gallon trash can to a 60 gallon can plus a 32 gallon organics collection can. Thus, they receive more waste producing potential at a cheaper price provided they join the organics program. The City also offers a $25 yearly rebate for normal recycling and a $40 yearly rebate for normal & organics recycling.
The City owns and operates its own waste and recycling for residents. There are 30, 60 and 90 gallon waste containers available to the residents. The City has a volume-based cost.
In August 2012 a contract was signed with Waste Management for garbage removal and recyclable materials. Using a 64 gallon cart recycling volumes have increased typically 35%-40%. The old bins only held 18 gallons of material by going to 64 gallon carts every other week the availabe volume is almost quadrupled. Additionally, trash volume has decreased between 18% to23%.Byreducing the trash volume, residents are often able to down size to a smaller trash container, enabling a further reduction in their monthly rate.
Hutchinson partners with our licensed hauler to provide rates based on the volume of the waste container, cheaper for smaller container, to promote the downsize of landfill bound materials. Hutchinson also provides its own location for compost at Creekside, which is where the organics collection is directed.
Separate recycling and organics waste collection is available for Tribal members. The recycling is volume based pricing and is a reduced price in comparison to trash. The Land and Environment department also offers battery recycling and Christmas lights recycling.
The County provides incentives to encourage waste reduction
through volume-based fees. By reducing the amount of waste produced, recycling,
composting and utilizing the hazardous waste facility, citizens get the most for their
money and can potentially reduce the amount they pay for disposal. The County intends
to continue to be a positive example to local municipalities, businesses and residents by
reducing waste generated from County sources and providing information and
assistance to businesses and residents. The County encourages waste reduction and
reuse through its educational outlets. Ongoing public education will continue to be
provided to motivate businesses and citizens to reduce the amount of waste they
produce and to support the Minnesota Materials Exchange and other waste
reduction/reuse programs.
Saint Paul City Code 357 Section 357.05 c)
Schedule of charges. Each licensee shall submit to the inspector a schedule of advertised charges in connection with his operation or service at the time of the application for license.
Charges for mixed municipal solid waste services provided after July 1, 1991, must be submitted on a form provided by the inspector and based on the number of mixed municipal solid waste containers serviced by the licensee. Volume-based rates must be offered which limit the total amount of mixed municipal solid waste to be collected and shall be in proportion to the amount or weight of mixed municipal solid waste collected and shall differ significantly and incrementally one from another. At a minimum, volume-based rates must be offered for three (3) levels of single-family through four-plex residential service. The levels of service are for one (1), two (2) and three (3) containers of mixed municipal solid waste. Refuse haulers must provide written notice to their customers at least twice yearly of their volume-based rate structure and must provide information on their volume-based rate structure to new customers, including those acquired from other refuse haulers.
The County Environmental Charge (CEC) is a fee billed by licensed haulers to their customers in Ramsey County. The fee is based on the amount of trash each customer produces. Because the CEC applies to trash and not recyclables, the CEC acts to reduce waste by getting people to recycle and compost more.
Each of the City's four licensed haulers offer volume based pricing dependent on size of trash can. To encourage increased recycling many of the haulers do not charge for a larger size recycling can (e.g. 96 gallon vs 64 gallon).
