Waterloo sanitation staff roll out Waterloo Wire app, flag litter and illegal dumping as top priorities

Sanitation officials for the City of Waterloo updated the council at a work session on their new Waterloo Wire app, enforcement steps to curb litter and illegal dumping, and a proposed $1 increase for the yard-waste recycling maintenance fee.

The update matters because sanitation service touches nearly every household in Waterloo: the department manages refuse, curbside recycling, yard waste and a city compost site, and officials said they are piloting new digital tools and enforcement to reduce contamination, spillage and missed pickups.

Randy Bennett, public works division manager, told the council the sanitation group employs 13 full-time workers and one administrative assistant and handles refuse collection, yard waste, cart maintenance, code enforcement of illegal dumps, neighborhood cleanups and twice-yearly household hazardous waste collections. "May 3 is gonna be the collection date for that," Bennett said, noting the hazardous-waste collection will be held in Waterloo.

Scott Brunson, sanitation director for the city, described Waterloo Wire, a web-and-app platform launched in January that lets residents enter an address to view an address-specific pickup calendar and receive targeted reminders when a pickup is delayed or rescheduled. "The calendar is specific to your address," Brunson said. He added the app includes a searchable "waste wizard" to guide residents on disposing items such as porcelain, glass or oil paint and lets users schedule bulk-item pickups online rather than in person.

Brunson gave early usage numbers: about 2,023 addresses have logged into the system, roughly 3,000 first-time visitors and about 22,560 schedule views. He said credit-card processing fees for online bulk scheduling cost the city about 3–4% of those fees, and the department is not proposing to shift those costs to customers now.

Bennett and Brunson said the department is focusing on reducing litter and illegal dumping. Bennett noted several causes: overloaded carts, lids left open (which allow vermin and wind to spread trash) and unsecured commercial dumpsters and bales of material that can disintegrate in high winds. "We're eventually gonna get to the point where we don't want any lids that are open," Bennett said, while allowing limited exceptions for double-route makeup days after holidays.

The city currently offers three refuse-cart sizes ("35, 65 and 95" in the department's presentation), optional curbside recycling and yard-waste service. The curbside recycling and yard-waste service fees are currently $4 each; officials proposed increasing the yard-waste recycling maintenance fee from $5 to $6 to help offset rising operating and contractor costs. Bennett said the city has not raised rates since 2019 and that operating costs and contractor costs have increased since then.

Bennett said Waterloo has about 23,000 refuse accounts and six collection routes per day; he estimated the department would take time to reach consistent enforcement of closed lids and said the city has been discussing "go back" charges for some time. "We do charge for them. It's not that we don't charge. It's just hit and miss right now," Bennett said when council members asked when stricter enforcement would be in place. He said the department hopes to have more consistent enforcement by this fall but cautioned that account adjustments and customer service remain a priority.

Officials said some commercial dumpsters are required by city ordinance to have locking mechanisms, but many are not currently secured. Bennett said the city will work with haulers and businesses and focus enforcement first on areas with the worst problems, naming the San Martin area near the mall and parts of Airline Highway as trouble spots.

Brunson also reported improvements in recycling contamination since the city implemented RouteWare routing and server-side changes; he said contamination fees in curbside material rose early in the program but have since fallen to rare months where contamination fees are charged to the city. "Since then, I can honestly say we've only had 2 months where we had a contamination fee in our material," Brunson said.

Councilmember Charles asked whether recycling collection could be brought in-house; Bennett replied the city is still under contract with Republic and that taking recycling in-house could be evaluated before contract renewal if council directs staff to do so.

The presentation closed with staff encouraging residents to use the Waterloo Wire app's "report a problem" feature to flag illegal dumps, missed pickups or other service concerns; staff said callers can still contact Public Works if they do not use the app.

Officials did not take formal action on rates or new enforcement rules at the meeting; the $1 yard-waste maintenance fee increase was presented as a proposed change for council consideration.