Brooklyn Park may be purchasing its own recycling carts, the City Council decided on Oct. 10, after experiencing issues with its current recycling hauler, Waste Management.
“Every service week since the beginning of June, there have been routes that have been pushed to the next day,” said Tim Pratt, Recycling Manager. “And in fact, I just received an email (earlier) that they did not finish collection in today’s route, the Monday route, which is the smallest zone in terms of the numbers of households. That is because Waste Management has a driver shortage.”
Brooklyn Park has contracted with Waste Management for its recycling services since 2002, when it was the first city in Minnesota to use single-stream recycling services.
Waste Management purchased the recycling carts for this program.
“Those carts have long been paid for and Waste Management has passed that savings on to Brooklyn Park residents; we currently pay the lowest recycling fee in the metro area,” Pratt wrote in a memo to the council.
However, without sufficient drivers to fully cover the routes, Brooklyn Park has regularly issued fines to the recycling hauler after leaving pickups unfinished.
“Even though we’ve been assessing $10,000 to $15,000 worth of fines every month, which is more than we’ve been assessing in total in a year, in a 12 month period, I would be ecstatic to not have to asses a single fine,” Pratt said.
Brooklyn Park has issued a request for proposals to potentially hire a new hauler for a contract beginning July 1, 2023.
According to Pratt, no other hauler could come near the price currently quoted for Waste Management’s services, since residents already have Waste Management carts.
Based on the city’s existing contract, any new hauler would need to purchase and distribute new carts, passing those costs on to residents. New haulers would charge approximately 75 cents more per household per month than the existing contract.
In an effort to level the playing field between haulers, the city could purchase an estimated 22,752 carts, then hire a hauler that will only provide hauling services, not carts, Pratt said.
“Even through their ability to provide service may differ, the fact that they have a financial competitive advantage is a thumb on the scale, so we can’t do kind of an apples to apples comparison,” he said.
Estimated costs for new carts would be $1.3 million, or approximately $60 per cart.
The city could purchase these carts through an internal loan at a cost of approximately $1 per household, per month for the next five years. Costs could also be spread out for residents over a longer period with a longer loan term.
The council was willing to entertain the idea of purchasing the carts.
“I like the idea of owning our own carts,” Councilmember Terry Parks said.
Councilmember Boyd Morson said the city ought to write an RFP requiring that companies work together to provide the recycling services, as other companies may also be low on employees.
“We just need to do it” to take away competitive advantage for Waste Management, Councilmember Tonja West-Hafner said.
Councilmember Susan Pha said she was not convinced that purchasing the carts would save residents money in the long term, but that she was willing to consider the proposal.
In July, Robbinsdale recouped $121,000 in damages from Waste Management, or approximately $23 per household due to nearly two years worth of delays in trash and recycling pickups.
