Committee hears overview of solid-waste fees as council prepares residential trash vote

The Transportation, Energy and Utilities Committee on May 6 heard a briefing on the city’s solid-waste fees and services and was told several charges have not been updated in years as council prepares for a pending vote on the residential trash fee.

Eric Fuller, environmental programs manager with the Solid Waste Division, told the committee the division handles residential and small-commercial curbside service for about 300,000 premises, weekly garbage and yard trash collection, recycling, bulk waste pickups and specialized collections such as appliances, tires and household hazardous waste. Fuller said the system has the potential for more than 3,000,000 collection points per month and that the division’s dashboard shows roughly a 99% successful-collection rate.

The presentation focused on how the city’s fees are structured and what they support. Fuller said tipping and host fees are set in the city code (examples cited during the briefing included ordinance references to the tipping- and host-fee language) and showed current rates: residential curbside disposal billed…