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Oakland chooses Waste Pro for trash service; town to provide branded carts, move to once-weekly pickup
Summary
The Town of Oakland voted Oct. 22 to accept its solid-waste advisory committee's recommendation and select Waste Pro as the new trash contractor. The move changes curbside service to once a week and supplies town-branded 95- or 64-gallon carts; the contract is expected to take effect Feb. 1, 2025.
The Town of Oakland commission voted Oct. 22 to accept the Solid Waste Advisory Committee's recommendation and select Waste Pro as the town's new solid-waste contractor, formalizing a service change intended to limit rate increases while standardizing collection.
Ed Kolakowski, a member of the advisory committee, told commissioners the panel evaluated four proposals and recommended Waste Pro's “option 4,” which calls for once-weekly pickup of household waste, once-weekly recycling (Thursday) and once-weekly yard-waste collection (Wednesday). “We recommend Waste Pro as the new solid waste contractor based on their proposal,” Kolakowski said.
Staff said the current Waste Management contract ends Jan. 31, 2025, and the new contract would take effect Feb. 1, 2025, after the commission completes contracting. Committee materials presented to the commission showed bids ranged from about $28.95 to $43.11 per month to maintain current twice-weekly service; the advisory committee reported a once-weekly option with town-owned rolling carts would reduce projected monthly cost to $25.58 in the selected proposal compared with a near-$40 figure if no changes were made.
Under the recommended service, the town would provide printed, town-branded wheeled carts (standard 95-gallon containers for most households, with an option to request a smaller 64-gallon cart). Residents will be surveyed before service begins to select the cart sizes they prefer; additional carts beyond the base allocation would carry an extra charge under the proposal. Staff and the committee said existing resident-owned cans could be used for yard waste or other purposes rather than being required for automated pickup.
Kolakowski said Waste Pro's plan includes compressed natural gas trucks, a supervisor pickup and GPS-enabled cameras for service verification to resolve missed-pickup complaints. The recommended routing splits the town so half of residents receive collection on Tuesday and the other half on Friday. The vendor also proposed annual hazardous-waste events and white-goods pickup handled by the supervisor truck.
Residents raised practical concerns during public comment about storage of larger carts in neighborhoods with HOA restrictions and about wildlife getting into carts left for a week; Joan Cox, a resident, asked specifically how the town would address animals accessing weekly curbside carts. Town staff acknowledged the concern and said options and communication with residents would be part of the implementation process.
A commissioner moved to adopt the committee's recommendation and the commission approved the motion by voice vote. Staff said contract details (including contract length, cost-of-living adjustments and other terms) will be negotiated in the final agreement and brought back to the commission for execution and formal rate-setting, as required by town code.
The commission thanked the advisory committee for its work on the RFP process and indicated staff will return with contract documents and an implementation schedule.
