Holiday Refuse Coll AllowanceMEMORANDUM
December 12, 2002
TO:The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM:Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT:Holiday Refuse Collection Allowance
Citizens have discussed with City staff concerns about additional waste created by the
Christmas and New Year's holidays. Staff researched potential options to deal with this
issue and how other communities address the extra volumes. Operations and
Maintenance Manager Don Vogt is recommending that the City offer one free refuse
container sticker to assist citizens with this problem.
This would be a pilot program that would need to be evaluated each year based on
cost, implementation issues and evaluation of its ability to address the problem. Most
other communities make no modification to their systems.
Public information would be distributed making citizens aware of this opportunity, but
the most important part of the public information distributed would be to encourage
citizens to recycle as much of their additional materials as possible.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
MCVM/jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, Corporation Counsel
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Don Vogt, Operations and Maintenance Manager
CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
MEMORANDUM
December 10, 2002
TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Don Vogt, Operations and Maintenance Manager
SUBJECT: Holiday Refuse Collection Allowance
The purposes of this memorandum are to provide information and recommend a
course of action regarding the extra materials usually collected by City solid
waste crews immediately after the Christmas and New Year's holidays. With our
recent implementation of the State-mandated Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) refuse
collection system, additional costs associated with this annual extra volume are a
concern of some of our customers.
Attached is a memorandum from Solid Waste Management Supervisor Paul
Schultz regarding the topic. Like Paul, I have also been approached by some
citizens regarding the disposal of the cardboard boxes, wrapping paper and
styrofoam that Christmas gifts are packed/wrapped in. I must admit that Paul's
and my original intent was to recommend to you that a one or two week post-
Christmas refuse collection amnesty be declared to accommodate the extra
materials. I asked Paul to consult with neighboring cities and Allied/BFI
regarding their policies. I also asked him to list the positives and negatives of
three likely options. After reading Paul's memorandum, I agree with him that the
negatives associated with a one or two week general amnesty seem to outweigh
the positives. However, I do support the idea of offering our customers
something which could address the cost of an extra container and be viewed as
a holiday "thank you" for the community-wide support and success of the PAYT
program. As a result, I do recommend that one, single-use, extra refuse
container sticker be provided free of charge to any walk-in City of Dubuque
refuse collection customer at the Utility Billing counter at City Hall through
January 17th. Paul and I have discussed this option with Finance Director Ken
TeKippe. He feels that it can be accommodated by his staff, with some
assistance from one of our restricted-duty workers, and agrees that the walk-in
distribution method is the least costly option, other than the no-change option.
By having the free sticker available for approximately a full month, customers
desiring one should not feel that they have to make a special trip downtown for it.
Also, the free sticker option allows for its use after Christmas, Kwanzaa, New
Year's Day, or any other special occasion or holiday in the coming year. I also
recommend that we immediately initiate an educational campaign - noting that a
lot of the packaging materials are recyclable and/or reusable.
I request your direction in this matter.
ATTACHMENT
CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
MEMORANDUM
December 10, 2002
TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
Donald J. Vogt, Operations and Maintenance Department Manager
Paul F. Schultz, Solid Waste Management Supervisor
Christmas Holiday Extra Refuse Accomodation
The purpose of this memorandum is to suggest three alternatives in
response to customer concerns regarding extra refuse generation following
Christmas. Six customers have expressed this concern to me over the last two
months. It is due to the container setout limits of the Pay As You Throw program.
First Alternative: No Program Change: No extra refuse containers to be
collected without attached extra garbage single-use stickers.
Second Alternative: Advertise One Extra Baq or Can at No Additional
Charge: This exception would be allowed for each household or small business
customer on their first collection day following Christmas.
Third Alternative: Distribute One Extra Garbage Pickup Tag Per Customer
At No Charge: This option would be available through customer pickup at the
Utility Billing Counter until January 17, 2003.
Rationale for the alternatives:
First Alternative: No Program Change:
Accepting a "free bag" would appear to undermine the basis of
PAYT and the importance of recycling and waste minimization
as an every day responsibility;
· Very few PAY'I' programs make volume exceptions for
Holidays: Dubuque BFI/Allied, Cedar Rapids and Ottumwa do
not. Madon does allow an extra bag, but does not state it on
their website;
· A "No Exceptions" policy would avoid the criticism that the City
is favodng a Christian religious holiday over other ethnic,
cultural traditions;
· A good percentage of our customers will not need to set out
any extra containers of holiday refuse given their strong
recycling of cardboard and other paper;
· The PAYT program can use the revenue since aggressive
recycling has reduced the sale of single-use extra garbage
pickup tags;
· None of our current written literature or text on our Extra
Garbage Pickup Tags says anything about a holiday
exception;
· If a "free bag" were allowed this year for the Christmas
Holiday, it would be difficult to not allow the same exception in
future years. In future years, some customers could stockpile
heavier refuse for this free disposal which would reduce
sticker revenue, increase overtime and increase heavier lifting
risks under winter conditions;
· Customers have been stocking-up on single-use stickers for
holiday use. Some customers will claim that they did not get
any message about free bags following Christmas. Some will
demand that they be compensated for having a stickered bag
collected when a sticker was not required, or perhaps that we
should collect a free bag the next week. This is a no-win
situation and will cause a lot of extra phone calls coming into
the office and additional paperwork and workload for solid
waste staff follow-up;
· The implementation of the PAYT program allowed us to lower
the solid waste base fee by $1.00 per month. Our analysis
has indicated that 75 to 80% of our customers have saved
money under PAYT. Our base fee is the lowest of the larger
cities in Iowa. Therefore, the cost of disposing of holiday
refuse should not be seen as an unfair burden but as a
seasonal adjustment compensated by a lower monthly fee;
and,
· Recycling crews will be instructed to collect unacceptable
paper holiday packaging material, and to leave a friendly
reminder tag for the future, rather than rejecting the material
and leaving it uncollected in the recycling bin. Our
recyclables-processing vendor BFI/Allied has approved this
accommodation. It will reduce the materials needed to be set
out as refuse by our customers.
Second Altemative: Advertise One Extra Bag or Can at No Charge:
· Much of the packaging generated at Christmas is not
recyclable: Styrofoam, foil-component greeting cards and
envelopes, miscellaneous plastics, etc;
· The extra refuse containers at this time of the year weigh very
little, compact well and would only increase our cost of
collection by a relatively small amount;
· The accommodation could be presented as a holiday present
/ thank you for our customers' excellent participation in the
PAYT program;
· Families often feel financially pinched at Christmas and
express that they would rather use their available dollars for
presents rather than for refuse disposal;
· With an extra allowed bag, there would be less refuse left
uncollected in alleys; and,
· There would be less of an incentive to dump illegally.
Third Altemative: Distribute One Extra Garbage Pickup Tag
Per Customer At No CharRe.
· The accommodation could be presented as a holiday present /
thank you for our customers' excellent participation in the PAYT
program. This would not imply any future holiday waste
accommodation;
· The tag would be made available for customer pickup at the
Utility Billing counter until January 17, 2003. Requests by phone
to mail out the tag would not be accepted;
· Customers could use the tag on any of their collection days in the
future; and,
· Some customers might criticize this alternative as too much of a
bother to expect customers to travel to City Hall for the small
value of one free $1.05 tag. They may suggest that we mail a
sticker to each customer. However, mailing a sticker to every
customer would have a much more serious economic impact on
both the Solid Waste budget and the Utility Billing budget than a
pickup option.
Recommendation:
Third Altemative: Distribute One garbage Pickup Tag To Each
Customer. Pickup at the Utility Billing counter is the only viable option.