More News

City looks to revamp garbage collection

Pilot program to assess once-a-week pickup

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2005

Rockville officials took the first step toward potential major changes to city trash collection this week, unanimously approving a pilot program to test a once-weekly, semi-automated pick up on one trash route next year.

The City Council remains undecided about whether to maintain twice-weekly pick up that may come at a higher fee to residents or to switch to a more efficient once-weekly pick up with standardized trash carts that could accommodate a week’s worth of garbage and recycling materials. The pilot program will run from March to December in the Hungerford and Monument areas, which include the homes of Mayor Larry Giammo and Councilwoman Susan R. Hoffmann.

In the can Rockville will begin a pilot program in the two neighborhoods of Hungerford and Monument. Current system: Monthly rate projected to increase from $29.50 to $40.50 by 2014. New program citywide: Monthly rate projected to rise to $35 by 2014.

The route encompasses 778 homes in neighborhoods bordered by Cabin John Parkway, Wootton Parkway, Fleet Street, and Mount Vernon Place and Monroe Street, Maryland Avenue, and Great Falls Road.

‘‘There’s a big cultural shift we’re asking for here,” Councilman Robert E. Dorsey said Monday.

If the pilot is well received and the City Council opts for a similar program citywide, any changes would not happen until July 1, 2007. In the long-term, the city may go to fully-automated trash trucks on eight of the city’s 20 trash routes by fiscal 2013 at the earliest, Simoneau said.

City staff will survey residents in the pilot area at the outset and about six months into the program, at which time staff will report to the City Council about how the program is working and being received by the community.

Public Works Director Craig Simoneau called the current trash program ‘‘inherently confusing.” The system now allows for backdoor pick-ups, discourages recycling — currently required to be picked up at the curb — charges a flat rate whether trash is collected once or twice each week and is labor intensive, leading to injuries of workers, he said.

Simoneau said the goals of the nine-month pilot program are to evaluate the city’s equipment needs, cart sizes, route sizes, staffing needs and customer satisfaction.

City staff will also gather information for volume-based pricing and track bulk items as they are collected.

Rockville began evaluating its trash collection, which is funded independently of the city’s operating budget through an enterprise fund known as the ‘‘refuse fund,” earlier this year. The city currently collects twice weekly, with workers going behind homes to pick up garbage residents do not set out on the curb.

After years of setting aside money for the construction of the city’s own transfer station, city leaders in the late 1990s scrapped that plan and used the fund’s surplus to keep rates artificially low, in effect subsidizing the cost of trash removal for several years.

From fiscal 1998 to fiscal 2005, the city refuse fund’s cash dropped from a surplus of $3.39 million to a deficit of $331,216.

The trash collection system only this year began to cover its own costs for the first time in several years.

‘‘We’re really in a position where we have to do something,” Finance Director Gavin Cohen told the City Council on Monday.

City Manager Scott Ullery said the current system would mean rate increases of 5 percent to 7 percent annually ‘‘for the foreseeable future,” while a more modern, efficient system would mean much lower rate increases.

Simoneau said with the natural turnover of the trash force and by not filling vacancies, the Public Works Department can achieve a lower staff level that a more efficient system would require within a couple of years.

During the pilot program, the city will provide a 96-gallon refuse cart and a 64-gallon mixed paper⁄cardboard recycle cart to each of the homes on the route for trash and recycling pick up on Mondays. Residents would retain and use the current 22-gallon blue recycling bin for various items.

Residents will be allowed to set out any trash that does not fit in the 96-gallon cart in their old 32-gallon cans during the pilot program. Those unable to take their trash to the curb can retain backdoor collection at no extra charge, and will be able to sign up in the pilot program.

Councilwoman Anne M. Robbins said she and her husband, former Councilman Dave Robbins, ‘‘really want” to maintain the twice weekly pick-up and that residents want to decide what to spend their money on.

Giammo said the decision ‘‘comes down to what Rockville residents want” and want to pay for.

City staff will begin meeting with civic associations in the area of the pilot study soon, and distribute information through the city’s newsletter, Rockville Reports and on The Rockville Channel, cable 11.

Trash reform

Rockville will begin a pilot program to test trash collection on a once-weekly, semi-automated basis with standardized carts next year. The more efficient system may be rolled out citywide as early as fiscal year 2008 (which begins July 2007). Key information follows:

* If current system continues unchanged: monthly rate projected to increase from $29.50 to $40.50 by 2014

* If new program adopted citywide in mid-2007: rate projected to rise to $35 by 2014

* Projected savings from mid-2007 to 2014 with new program: $300 per household

* Projected savings if pilot program adopted citywide: $381,000 annually