“Pay as you throw” trash pickup in Grapevine a bad idea

by Joe Thomas of Grapevine TX Online

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All the new options are prohibitively more expensive than our current option. Why would anyone consider such dramatic price increases?

Sometimes we read an article and think, “Where has common sense gone in this world?” Case in point is the “Pay As You Throw” trash idea that is being floated around these parts.

Here’s an excerpt from the most recent article on the subject from the Grapevine Courier:

“Group leader John Rath called the City Council’s failure to discuss the “pay as you throw” service at its April 20 work session 'a slap in the face' to the 329 who petitioned for the service in March. The 45-minute session featured presentations on three services by Allied Waste, a trash hauler whose contract with the city expires in June.”

Currently, Grapevine residents pay $10.90 per month, which would increase to $11.09 per month after the June contract expires. For those of you who are not math whizzes, this increase is about 1.7%. This seems VERY reasonable to us.

Here are the NEW options being floated out that the John Rath led group is pushing for:

Option 1 – Pay As You Throw

A three-tiered pricing system where you pay $10.20 per month for a 32-gallon cart’s worth of pickup (effectively 2 kitchen sized trash bags). You pay $14.20 for a 64-gallon cart (4 kitchen sized bags). And you pay $18.20 per month for a 96-gallon cart (6 kitchen sized bags). Plus you get a 64 gallon cart for recyclables. Oh yeah, and possible fines if you exceed your trash cart size.

Let us break some bad news. This is a sizable increase over what you pay now. It is not a 1.7% increase like you would see if the city just renews the same service. We cannot calculate the exact increase because the system is so overly complex for something as simple as trash pick up.

Instead of calling this Pay As You Throw,they should change the name to Pay A Lot More Than You Pay Now For Effectively The Same (or Less) Service.

Option 2 – RecycleBank

Cost goes to $14.44 per month, BUT you can earn points toward local meals and goods based on how much you recycle. This is roughly a 32% increase over what you pay now. Sounds expensive and a little gimmicky to us.

Option 3 – Traditional

Cost per month increases to $13.19. You are given a 64-gallon cart for recyclables and trash pick up continues at two times per week as it is now. It's effectively a 21% increase for use of a 64-gallon cart for recyclables. Why is this even an option? The idea behind this one seems to be, let’s pay 20% more without getting anything at all in return. The fact that this is even a proposal is confusing.

Here’s the problem -- if the logic above is even remotely close, all the new options are prohibitively more expensive than our current option. Why would anyone consider such dramatic price increases?

No thanks on all these new options. We’ll opt for continued good service with a very reasonable 1.7% price increase. Thank you.

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