New franchise agreement would take effect in October 2025 - TCPalm

New franchise agreement would take effect in October 2025

14 months to pick a new trash hauler? This time Indian River County wants to get it right
Janet Begley

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The county will take up to 14 months to choose what company picks up its trash, recycling and yard waste when its contract with Waste Management ends in September 2025.

It will be a difficult road, County Commissioner Susan Adams said Tuesday, but hopefully the effort will pay off at the other end.

“It’s going to be a tough process this year,” Adams told her fellow commissioners. “I’m not excited about going through this again. I think we should prepare ourselves for some difficult conversations. No matter what we do, we’re not going to make everybody happy. But I’m glad we are getting started early.”

Adams shared the feeling of other commissioners: They don't want a repeat of the problems the county encountered in 2015, when customers across unincorporated Indian River County had problems with Waste Management missing pickups and having erratic cart deliveries.

The county has four options to consider as it plots a course to a new solid-waste contract in late 2015, according to Himanshu Mehta, county solid-waste disposal director:

- Maintaining the current subscription service. Trash, recycling and yard waste are collected weekly, and residents provide their own containers for yard waste.
- Universal pick-up. All households get mandatory pickup, and customers are billed on their tax bills for trash, recycling and yard-waste pickups.
- Subscription trash, recycling and yard-waste collection in provided carts
- Universal service for all households with customers billed on their tax bills for garbage, recycling and yard-waste collections with provided carts.

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To make sure the county has enough time to implement universal collection — if it chooses to go that way — Mehta proposed beginning to solicit interest from haulers this fall. The county could compile those proposals in January, have a staff recommendation in March, award a contract in July 2024 and would be able to begin the new contract, with Waste Management or a new contractor, October 1, 2025.

The commission Tuesday also approved a rate increase for current county recycling, yard waste and garbage collectors, exceeding the 3% consumer price index increase called for in their contracts. Haulers now will receive 3.8%-4% increases to accommodate higher fuel and labor costs.

Janet Begley is a local freelance writer for TCPalm.com. If you like articles like this and other TCPalm coverage of Treasure Coast news, please support our journalism and subscribe now.