Peter Nierngarten, the city's environmental director, and consultants presented a solid‑waste cost-of-service study that recommends replacing curb-sort recycling with a weekly, single-cart (all-in-one) collection system to improve diversion, worker safety and long-term financial sustainability.

The recommendation would require up-front capital to buy carts and at least six new automated collection trucks; staff estimated a multiyear capital program concentrated in 2026 as trucks and carts are deployed. Consultants said the single-cart weekly model is expected to roughly double captured recyclables versus the current program, reduce worker injuries, lower ongoing operating costs and rebuild the solid-waste fund reserves earlier than the status quo.

Nut graf: under the recommended transition, the consultant proposed an initial rate adjustment — a 9.5% increase for year one (2026) followed by a 7.5% increase in 2027 — with smaller increases thereafter; for the city’s most common household service (a 64‑gallon cart) the consultant estimated a levelized $5.78 increase in monthly bills over five years compared with a $7.22 increase under the status-quo operational path.

Staff said the city currently diverts about 20% of residential waste and that a 2016 Recycling Master Plan target of 40% has not been met. A September waste sort showed an estimated 3,800 tons of recyclables buried in the residential trash stream last year — roughly a 40% capture rate of recyclable material generated — and commercial capture rates were lower. Consultants flagged cardboard and glass as large components of the recyclables stream by weight.

Councilmembers asked about contamination control, privacy concerns related to truck-mounted cameras and the cost/availability of regional processing capacity. Councilmember Bernal and others requested additional data on contamination rates from nearby cities piloting automated contamination-detection systems (Springdale was cited as a pilot site) and asked staff to provide processing cost comparisons and projected contract terms in the RFP that staff will run for an external processor.

Staff said a transition would require ordering trucks (long lead times), buying carts for residential customers, designing a public education campaign and issuing an RFP for a processor; staff recommended bringing a formal rate ordinance for council consideration on July 15. No formal vote occurred during the agenda session.

Ending: Staff will return with the full rate ordinance and implementation schedule, including truck lead times, RFP timetable for processing services, contamination-management specifications and answers to privacy questions about automated on-truck cameras.