Clay County keeps solid-waste assessments and collection fees unchanged after staff warns curbside recycling would raise costs

Clay County commissioners on July 14 voted unanimously to keep the annual solid-waste disposal assessment at $96 and the solid-waste collection assessment at $262 for 2026'7, after staff warned that restoring curbside recycling under the current contract would substantially increase costs.

Milton Towns, the county irector of environmental services, told the board that the decision to forego curbside recycling in the current collection contract was driven by cost: "the cost to process was about 3 times as much as the cost to dispose for that material" at one point, and more recently processing recyclables costs about $145 more per ton than disposal. Towns said that difference "equates to over $530,000 a year estimated," not counting transport and collection costs.

Commissioners discussed the trade-offs: reinstating curbside recycling would require either higher fees for all residents or additional county subsidy. One commissioner noted the possibility that recycling previously produced revenue but stressed that current market and processing costs no longer cover program expenses.

A motion to maintain the assessments and collection fees was made and seconded; the motion carried unanimously.

Towns said the county retains the option to revisit recycling in the future and that procurement staff and the contractor can evaluate contract adjustments, but the current recommendation was to keep collection as-is to avoid a fee increase this year.