TAR staff: residential customers steady; reported green-waste drops after contractor change, unplanned 40-yard roll-off added

Staff reported that the authority's residential customer count remains about 122,000 and year-to-date tonnage is roughly 1,000 tons higher than last year. Staff also said they removed 13 carts in September for "blatant contamination" and recorded additional customers lost from twice-a-week service.

Staff told the board the most notable operational change is a drop in residential green-waste drop-off tonnage for September. That decline corresponds with CS Carry taking over commercial grinding and related handling; staff said the authority is now reporting only noncommercial residential drop-offs in the public-facing statistic, while commercial volumes are processed by the contractor and not included in that line on the report. Staff cautioned the reported drop reflects the change in reporting and operational responsibility rather than a citywide decline in total green-waste.

Separately, staff described discovering an unlabeled, full 40-yard roll-off at the State Farm building. Because no owner was clear from the roll-off marking, staff emptied it internally and then executed a special amendment to the American Waste contract to add 40-yard compactor service. Staff said the unplanned roll-off and an additional municipal pickup for the safety building contributed to higher refuse and intergovernmental-hauling tonnages this month.

Board members asked clarifying questions about reporting and seasonality for cubic yards of green-waste; staff said future months will likely show seasonal "sine wave" patterns (spring yard clean-up months) once the reported residential-only drop-off metric stabilizes. Staff also said there is a potential profit-sharing arrangement after a 12-month grace period if the contractor sells processed products, which could yield some revenue back to the authority.