Barbara Renz of Norcross welcomes Gwinnett County’s new garbage service. She pays about $7 a month less, can recycle more and her neighborhood is cleaner since her neighbors -- forced to pay for garbage collection -- quit dumping trash behind their house.
“Their dogs tore the bags open, [and] raccoons and rats were in the trash,” Renz said. “But it’s all gone now.”
Wendy Prather of Snellville dislikes the new service. It costs her nearly $3 more, eliminated competition and forced residents to pay for a service that used to be optional.
“It should not be legal for the government to force you to buy any type of service,” Prather said.
A year after Gwinnett launched a new garbage plan for 190,000 residents, recycling is up, complaints are down and a judge has ruled the service is legal. But not everyone is happy.
That’s not likely to change soon. A proposed 30-cent-per-month rate increase in January might reignite ill feelings that have dogged Gwinnett’s garbage collection plans, and legal challenges continue that have cost the county nearly $187,000.
Previously residents of unincorporated Gwinnett County chose their own trash hauler from a list of qualified companies. Last July the county granted five companies exclusive rights to collect residential trash in different parts of the county.
The new plan for the first time required all residents to pay for trash service. Gwinnett collected 18 months’ of fees up front -- $321.48 -- on last year’s property tax bills. Under the plan, residents have the option of paying an extra $10 per month to their trash hauler for yard waste collection.
The idea was to encourage recycling and discourage illegal dumping, and county officials say they’re succeeding on the first goal.
Under the previous system, private companies recycled about 5 percent of the garbage they collected in unincorporated Gwinnett. They recycle more than 12 percent now -- nearly 6,000 tons of waste every three months. Gwinnett’s Casey Snyder, who oversaw the transition, hopes recycling eventually will reach 20 to 30 percent.
County officials say illegal dumping has decreased, and Renz acknowledged it is down dramatically in her neighborhood. Others see mixed results.
Tom Weidinger of Lawrenceville generally likes the new service and has noticed less trash in his neighborhood. But he said neighbors continue to dump yard waste in nearby stormwater ponds because they don’t want to pay the extra $10 per month.
Haulers previously operated on different schedules, and garbage trucks used to drive down residential streets several days per week. Truck traffic since has been reduced to a single day, and trash cans don’t line local streets as often.
Residents also can recycle 35 items; Renz said she previously was able to recycle seven. “Just about everything can be recycled,” she said.
The new service got off to a rocky start last summer. Haulers missed pickups. Residents didn’t know when to put their trash out. Gwinnett initially received 5,000 calls per day from confused or angry residents. The county now receives about 110 calls a day, and most are questions, not complaints.
Yet many residents still don’t like the trash service. It debuted when people had grown skeptical of government initiatives following a string of controversiesthat included questionable land purchases, a secret deal to build the Gwinnett Braves stadium and an unpopular property tax hike.
When Gwinnett took away their choice of trash haulers, these residents were livid. “Government interference in every part of our affairs seems to universally result in higher prices and lower service levels,” Prather said.
Gwinnett officials cite a study that shows their rate of $17.86 per month is competitive and say most residents were paying more for trash service previously. Rates are lower in many Gwinnett cities, but most of them subsidize garbage service in some way.
Gwinnett’s rate is frozen through the end of this year. Under the county’s contract with the five waste haulers, rates then can rise Jan. 1, based on inflation and the price of fuel.
The companies have proposed a 30-cent rate increase for next year, which would add $3.60 annually to residents’ trash bill, and likely be unwelcome.
“We’re coming out of a recession; everybody’s spending less,” John Dolan of Suwanee said. “How are rates going up?”
Softening the blow, Gwinnett will collect for 12 months of service on this year’s tax bills, not 18 months. If the rate rose 30 cents, the bill would fall from $321.48 to $217.92.
For two and a half years, Gwinnett has been in constant litigation over its trash service. The county has fended off challenges to the new plan, but Gwinnett has spent $186,759 since 2008 on various trash-related lawsuits. That’s enough to pay the salaries of five entry-level police officers.
Steve Ramey of the Founding Fathers Tea Party Patriots said Gwinnett has wasted taxpayer dollars by “defending a trash system no one wanted.”
Others contend the county hasn’t spent nearly as much as it could have. Two trash haulers involved in early lawsuits sought damages of $40 million each. The county settled those lawsuits by creating the current trash plan.
“There’s no telling how much we would have spent if we didn’t come to a settlement with the haulers,” Commissioner Mike Beaudreau said.
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