Agenda - Council - 11/25/1980 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- 24 - ORGANIZED REFUSE COLLECTION There are basically four different types of residential refuse collection in the Metropolitan Area. 1) In most Area suburbs and St. Paul, homeowners contract directly with a private hauler of their choice; there is no municipally financed refuse collection. 2) In some Area suburbs, the city provides mandatory, municipally financed refuse collection for all residents Dy contracting with a private hauler, selected on either a negotiated or a competitive bid basis. 3) In Minneapolis, under a mandatory collection system, approxi- mately 40 percent of the city is-served by municipal crews and the remaining 60 percent is under a negotiated contract with a consortium of private haulers. Both municipal crews and pri- vate haulers transport refuse to a transfer station owned by a private operation. All refuse is then transported to suburban landfills. 4) Two communities, Hopkins and Farmington, provide mandatory, municipally financed refuse collection entirely by city crews. NO private haulers are involved. The commercial and industrial collection systems in the Metropolitan Area are more complex and capital intensive than residential collec- tion. Collection agreements are established through both verbal and written contracts, with some limited bidding for larger corporations and institutions (such as hospitals and colleges). Nonresidential service often requires specialized equipment for light commerical, heavy industrial and demolition materials, which makes commercial and industrial collection more expensive. Another factor is that collec- tion hours vary for commercial and industrial accounts (for example, from midnight to dawn) because there is limited access due to traffic during business hours. In some cases, local ordinances restricting access to storage containers result in increased commercial and indus- trial collection costs. Therefore, while the problems of developing an organized commercial and industrial collection system are 9rearer, the potential savings are also greater because of the higher costs. The efficiency of solid waste collection in the Region varies from community to community. Much of the Region's waste is collected under an "open hauling" arrangement, alternative 1 above, where a house- holder selects a hauler or elects to haul his own rubbish. This sys- tem promotes competition among haulers, which helps moderate price increases; however, there are many inefficiencies built into this system. Under this type of hauling arrangement, there are often several hauling trucks collecting on the same streets and alleys the same day. The net effect is that haulers generally have longer collec- tion routes, which increase the cost of collection and limits crew productivity. Morover, under the open hauling system there is often more wear and tear on streets and alleys, as well as noise and air pollution, because of the increase in collection vehicular traffic.