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Avondale plans to shift curbside recycling and trash to Monday–Thursday to cut costs and improve reliability
Summary
Avondale public works officials proposed moving curbside trash, recycling and bulk services to Monday–Thursday beginning Feb. 1, 2025, citing rising landfill and recycling costs and operational efficiencies; the proposal includes outreach with stickers and a resident grace period.
Harold, the city’s assistant director of public works, told the Avondale City Council on Oct. 7 that the city plans to change its curbside trash and recycling schedule to Monday through Thursday beginning Feb. 1, 2025, to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
The department’s presentation reviewed changes made since a consultant study two years ago — including revised bulk-trash collection zones, a new solid-waste management software and GPS/camera systems on vehicles — and laid out current challenges. Harold said landfill disposal costs are up about 13% over three years and that the city’s per-ton recycling net cost has swung dramatically, from a net cost of about $30.85 per tonne to as high as $71.61 per tonne in recent years.
“We’re going to change our curbside recycling schedule 02/01/2025,” Harold said. He described the operational rationale: staff will work Monday–Thursday, aligning collection with fleet and maintenance schedules, reducing late-afternoon trips to the Phoenix recycling facility and allowing daily trash and recycling operations that can accommodate courtesy pickup requests any day of the week.
Harold also described earlier steps the city took to stabilize costs and service: moving to 10-hour workdays on a rotating schedule, hiring an additional heavy-equipment mechanic, adding cameras and GPS to collection vehicles and opening a community recycling drop-off center (launched July 17) that diverted roughly 2,500 pounds of material through September.
Council members raised operational questions. Council member Veronica asked about staffing levels and vehicle downtime; Harold said the residential collection team includes eight equipment operators plus a senior and lead (10 total on the residential side) and that it is common to have two or three vehicles occasionally out of service because of parts delays. “We have 14 trucks total,” Harold said when describing fleet capacity and future budget requests for additional operators.
On data-retention policy for on-board video, Harold said footage is overwritten on a regular cycle: “About every 2 weeks, it gets written over.” Council asked staff to provide further policy detail if needed.
Harold said the city will communicate the schedule change through mailers and stickers residents can affix to their cans, will provide a grace period during rollout, and will coordinate outreach at public events. He said a rate adjustment proposal will still be presented in the spring as the city monitors costs beyond its control, including county and regional fee changes.
The presentation did not include a formal vote on the schedule change; council members asked clarifying questions and thanked staff for the work. The consent agenda, taken earlier in the meeting, was approved unanimously.
