South Portland will end city-run trash pickup for private waste hauling under a five-year, $4.5 million contract with Pine Tree Waste that becomes effective next summer.
The South Portland City Council voted 6-1 Monday night to authorize the city manager to sign an agreement with the Scarborough-based company to handle trash collection and recycling.
It will cost $830,000 the first year, increasing by 4 percent annually during the life of the contract.
Councilor James Soule offered the only dissenting vote, saying that he was not convinced that privatization was the best choice financially for the city.
Monday’s vote to privatize trash collection also brings significant changes to the residential curbside recycling, introducing a more convenient “single sort system.”
Public Works Director Dana Anderson said the recycling program represents a “significant policy change for South Portland,” adding that “the long-term solution for keeping solid waste disposal costs down is recycling.”
Every household will get a second 65-gallon barrel dedicated exclusively for recyclables. Residents will be able to put all their recyclables in one lidded container that will be wheeled to the curb, just like their trash containers.
The single-sort recycling program will expand the number of items that can be recycled. Seven types of plastics can be recycled, as opposed to only two types now. Residents will not need to put recycling containers out for emptying each week. They can wait until the container is nearly full before setting it out for pickup.
Gary Crosby was one of two South Portland residents who spoke at a public hearing before the vote.
He said that the new recycling barrels will give him a convenient place to store recyclables before weekly pickup, instead of letting them pile up in his house.
“I’d love to get the recyclables out of the kitchen,” Crosby said.
The city plans a public education campaign to explain to residents how the system works and to detail which items can be recycled.
Pine Tree Waste will start the new recycling program and begin trash pickup for the city starting in June or July 2008.
The new contract with Pine Tree Waste represents an estimated $113,337 increase in the 2008 fiscal year budget for managing trash collection and recycling.
City officials say the costs would have been higher. But they are projecting a 10 percent increase in recycling by city residents under the new automated curbside program. More recycling should lower the city’s waste disposal costs.
Scarborough adopted the same recycling program with Pine Tree Waste earlier this year, and has noticed a difference in the cleanliness of streets.
Pine Tree Waste reports that participating communities see an increase in how much people recycle.
South Portland is hoping residents will find the large barrels easier to use than the small bins they have now.
“There will be a profound economic benefit if residents will do this with gusto,” said Mayor Claude Morgan.
The company will distribute the containers, which will cost $93,000 for each year of the contract. After five years, the city will own the containers, reducing the annual cost of the service contract with Pine Tree Waste.
Pine Tree Waste already handled the city’s recycling. But its contract was up for renewal, when the city decided to privatize trash collection as well.
The future of the city’s trash collection and recycling program has been the subject of two city council workshops and at the center of some debate.
Councilors had expressed concern about eliminating city jobs by going with a private contractor. They also questioned why the city’s own automated trash collection program had to end abruptly after only two years.
But Anderson said the two full-time employees who currently handle trash pickup will be moved to other jobs, and their positions will be lost through attrition.
South Portland’s weekly trash hauling service was plagued with problems this year after one of two new automated trash trucks with robotic arms was destroyed in a rollover accident. The other automated truck has had significant mechanical problems.
Anderson said the city does not have the resources – including additional mechanics and enough high-tech trucks – to keep handling trash collection in an efficient manner. Anderson said labor costs for trash collection have gone up since losing one automated truck.
The city has had to use an old truck, requiring haulers to pick up and empty barrels by hand. The manual work takes longer. There also is a shortage of workers who want to haul trash.
Anderson projected $65,000 in additional labor costs until Pine Tree Waste takes over next year.
The public works department will absorb the costs, so there will be no impact on the city budget, Anderson said.
The department is no longer making payments on the demolished automated truck, and will use some of that budgeted money for extra labor. Anderson expects to sell the other automated truck for $50,000, once Pine Tree Waste takes over the trash hauling for the city.
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