New trash collection fees from April 1 – and Americans will be paying more

HOMEOWNERS in a major city are set to pay more than ever before in trash collection fees.

Residents have to shell out extra starting April 1 thanks to inflation adjustments and skyrocketing city franchise fees.

On February 12, the City Council of Reno, Nevada voted to increase a franchise fee for its contracted sanitation company.

Currently, Waste Management pays the city 8% of its growth revenue from services in the city area – but this is now set to swell to 14%.

Homeowners will have to pay the surplus, meaning they’ll be charged 6% more for services.

Depending on cart sizes, residents will now have to shell out about $2.59 to $3.18 more a month, according to city documents seen by This Is Reno.

Ultimately, homeowners will have to pay about $30 to $40 more per year depending on the exact services they’re opting for, the outlet reported.

Officials pointed out that this is the first major price hike in years, and insisted it will help fight the city’s $24 million budget deficit for 2027.

“The thought process behind it, we do the ten-year modeling to see what actually works,” said Vicki Van Buren, Director of Finance for the City of Reno, to local CBS affiliate KTVN.

“The sanitation franchise fees were done back in the ’90s. They made some contractual changes back in 2012 and really nothing since that,” added Van Buren.

This 6% price hike is expected to raise $5.5million for the city, compounding with the $16million it already saved by freezing 20 open positions and reducing services.

Other trash collection changes are also being implemented across the country, including residents of one city paying $50 for special bins that still haven’t arrived.

Several others took effect at the start of the year with varying impacts, including one that will force homeowners to manually separate their waste by whether or not it’s organic.