A waste collection company that had a very rough patch last year with a wide range of client complaints – Republic Services – came before the Guilford County Board of Commissioners this week and asked the county to grant it a rate increase. The commissioners took no action at the meeting, but they are considering the company’s request and those in Guilford County who use the service will likely know in 30 to 60 days – after the commissioners have more discussion on the matter – if there will be an increase.
Republic Services has a non-exclusive franchise agreement with Guilford County that allows the company to do business in the county, and currently the price it can charge customers is capped at $16.50 a month for pickup of garbage weekly and recycling every other week. At the meeting, the company requested that the county raise that cap to $21.50 a month and require that all Republic Services customers use the company’s containers for the sake of efficiency and safety.
The last increase the company had was in 2008, from $16 to $16.50, so company representatives argued that Republic’s price hadn’t even kept up with cost of living increases over the last decade.
At the Board of Commissioners Thursday, March 21 work session in the Blue Room of the Old Guilford County Court House, representatives of the company went into great detail as to the factors that are driving up the company’s costs for collection and recycling. One major consideration cited by company officials is that selling recyclables is much less profitable in recent years due to trends in packaging and other reasons. Fewer people get physical newspapers, companies have made their containers less bulky, and changes in demand in China and other places for recyclables has also hurt the industry’s bottom line.
The Guilford County commissioners said at the meeting that they would consider the request, but several commissioners pointed out that a lot of customers in the county were still very upset about major service problems the company had last year. Republic has shown great improvement over the past eight or nine months, but, for several commissioners, it was still too soon after those problems to ask for a rate increase.
Commissioner Justin Conrad represents many people in the county’s Northwest who use the service and he seemed very firm in his resolve to protect their interests.
“It’s still fresh on people’s minds,” Conrad said of the collections problems early last year.
He said he knows that very well.
“I have a large density of your customers in my district,” Conrad said, adding that he really hears it anytime Republic drops the ball.
Conrad said that, if he voted that day, he would cast a no vote, and he said that in order to possibly be able to move to a yes vote he wanted to see any increase tied to performance measures that would assure better service for the company’s customers in Guilford County.
We in Hunters Ridge in Pleasant Garden have been paying only $15.00 per month to Republic Services. My wife and I
live alone and do not have a large amount of garbage or recycles. We use our own small cans purchased at Home Depot and
feel that $15.00 per month is more than adequate for what we get. Problems we see with their proposal are these:
(1) We are retired and on fixed income. Can’t afford to pay more.
(2) Can’t afford to buy bigger, more expensive garbage and recycle cans. We use small cans and they are all we need.
(3) Our garage is small and there is not enough room for larger garbage and recycle cans.
(4) At our current $15.00 rate, an increase to $21.50 is an increase of 43.3 Percent. I do not know who pays $16.50,
but that is 30 percent increase, That is far too much!
We urge the Commissioners to decline Republic Services’ request.
I don’t like the idea of using the larger cans the Republic offers. I’ve asked our driver if he’d prefer we switch to them and he told me he didn’t mind getting out of the truck to dump ours because it “gave him a break and chance to stretch his legs.” We live at the end of a dead-end road and we would have to put our Republic cans on the neighbor’s side for them to lift into the truck. They’ve been getting out to dump into the truck for years. We make an effort to keep our trashcans light, clean and easy to lift (Yes, we wash them out, keep smelly stuff in the freezer until trash day, and don’t overload the cans). We also try to be kind to our trash collectors by offering them cold drinks and snacks on hot days or muffins and cookies in the winter. They are good to us by making sure the cans are covered from rain and off the street. They haven’t had a raise in fees in over 10 years so asking for one is no surprise. They need to cover the cost of increased benefits, equipment and wages. I think it’s fair to help them with this.