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Hubbard residents hear garbage pickup proposal
HUBBARD
Residents gathered in city council chambers Wednesday to listen to a plan to switch from multiple garbage-collection companies to one.
Council is expected to consider legislation in the coming weeks to enter into a contract with Republic Services for garbage pickup and curbside recycling services.
City Services Director Dan Livingston said that a big complaint he and Mayor John Darko heard when Darko first took office was about garbage pickup. People don’t like hearing trucks on their streets in the middle of the night, and the collection prices are high.
“So we looked for an exclusive contract and went out for bids,” Livingston said. “Six carriers picked them up, and four brought back proposals. We felt the lowest and best was Republic Services.”
The new service is expected to begin Feb. 1.
The service will cost $14.10 a month, or $42.30 per quarter. Residents will be billed quarterly.
Senior citizens will get a 15 percent discount, so they will pay $11.99 per month. All residents will get a 2 percent discount if they pay the annual amount in full before Feb. 1.
The city’s bag program is still available. Residents can buy a roll of 10 bags for $20 at the city’s municipal building, and the company will charge $5 a month or $15 a quarter for pick up.
Republic will pick up garbage weekly and recyclables every other week, according to a draft of a letter it will send once council approves the contract.
Residents will use two different wheeled containers for collection. The company will provide 95-gallon wheeled recycling carts to all residents around Jan. 20. They can continue to use their old refuse carts if labeled Republic Services, BFI, Allied Waste or City Disposal, the letter says. Brent Bowker, general manager of Republic Services, said the city will look cleaner with the carts.
“They are carted containers with a heavy-duty lid — a cleaner environment for your city,” he said.
He also said that there will be less truck traffic, and Republic’s drivers don’t start until after 5 a.m.
John McGoran, Republic’s manager of municipal services for the western Pennsylvania area, said that even though recycling is included in the price of garbage collection, people do not have to do it.
It is single-stream recycling, he said, meaning no sorting is required.
Recycling is not as strict as it used to be. In response to questions, Bowker and McGoran said jars and cans don’t have to be thoroughly rinsed, just make sure there’s no standing liquid in them. labels don’t have to be taken off cans.
Throw in cardboard, newspapers, cans, glass bottles (as long as they aren’t broken), pickle jars, lids and all, laundry-soap containers, milk jugs and plastic juice bottles. Even plastic pump spray bottles are fine.
What don’t they want? Plastic deli trays, styrofoam meat holders, and plastic shopping bags. The bags jam up the sorting machines.
Bowker also answered other concerns, saying the company’s response time to complaints has improved.
One resident told Bowker a Republic driver recently ignored his garbage for three weeks, resulting in him getting cited.
Bowker told the man that if he knows of a complaint, he would come pick up the garbage himself.