Consumers to dump more cash into
waste pick-up
■ Garbage collection rates
will increase on March 1
By Lindsay Buchele
Oregon Daily Emerald
Lane County residents will be
forced starting March 1 to deal with
the highest rate increase in solid
waste and recycling collection
since 1994.
Every two years, the city’s Plan
ning and Development Department
meets with county waste collection
companies to regulate costs. This
year, customers will see 6 percent
increases in their bills. Representa
tives from local waste collection
companies said they receive com
plaints from consumers every time
garbage rates go up, and they’re ex
pecting another influx of calls soon.
But Nancy Young, solid waste/re
cycling analyst for Eugene Planning
and Developing, said waste collec
tion companies are powerless to
change garbage rates.
“The city is who determines the
costs for haulers; we set the rates
and the standards,” she said.
Since 1994, the city has regulat
ed landfill and hauling costs. In
creases are based on normal infla
tion, the cost of fuel, the cost of labor
and also the cost of recycling.
Recycling has become a huge part
of Eugene’s consumption methods,
thanks in part to the 1994 Recycling
Act, Young said. She also said that
recycling drives up hauling costs.
Sam Miller, who co-owns Lane
Garbage-APEX Disposal with his fa
ther, said years ago, his company
was able to collect and haul solid
waste with one worker and one
truck. Now, with recycling added to
the duties, the process requires two
trucks and two workers.
Miller also said that Eugene’s
growth accounts for mor e waste.
“The rate increases are not a re
sult of people being wasteful,”
Miller said. "We're just growing. ”
Though residents have experi
enced rate increases in waste dis
posal before, Laura Kuhn, co-owner
of ASW Disposal Incorporated, said
customers on fixed incomes will ex
perience real hardships.
“People with children are strug
gling to fit all their garbage in a 32-gal
Solid Waste Prices
When Eugene began charging
garbage collection by the pound in
1994, the price for emptying a 32
gallon trash can went down. Since
then, prices have gone up.
August 1996: $1.80 increase
November 1998: $1.55 increase
March 2001: $2.15 increase
Source: Eugene Planning and Development
Ion can and aren’t going to be able to
afford price increases,” Kuhn said.
1
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