Letter to the Editor: Imker Trashes Trash Proposal for Peachtree City

Has the City Council withdrawn the mandatory trash initiative yet? It should.

I’ve watched the community response on Facebook, and the numbers don’t lie: this proposal has generated an overwhelming wave of opposition, with only a scattered few in favor. 

When a supermajority of residents rejects an idea this clearly, elected officials owe it to their constituents to listen. This is government overreach, plain and simple, forcing every household to pay for services they may not want or need, regardless of their circumstances, and runs against basic principles of personal choice. 

I live next to a forest and don’t need yard waste pickup. Many of my neighbors don’t either. In 23 years living in Peachtree City, I’ve never once needed mandatory bulk pickup. If on the rare occasion I might need it, I’ll arrange and paid for it myself, for about $15 a visit.

Baking that into an ongoing contract every citizen pays quarterly, whether they use it or not, isn’t efficiency. It’s waste.

There’s no reason to rush this. No candidate campaigned on mandatory trash service in the last election. This wasn’t a mandate from voters, and the taxpayers have been ambushed. 

The Council has the authority to reject all current bids and rework the RFP. That power exists precisely for moments like this.

A simpler plan would serve almost everyone better. Weekly trash and biweekly recycling would be more than sufficient for the overwhelming majority of residents. Dropping the mandatory yard waste and bulk pickup requirements would likely attract more bidders and lower costs, and biweekly recycling alone should meaningfully reduce contractor costs. Nobody needs weekly recycling.

The math doesn’t add up. Over a decade ago, my neighborhood negotiated a better rate independently than what larger contracts have offered. If a small group of homeowners can secure 10-20% savings on their own, the city negotiating on behalf of roughly 14,000 households should be able to secure trash service for around $50 a quarter. 

The current bids aren’t realistic or competitive given that volume, and the Council shouldn’t settle for mediocre terms just to check a box that citizens did not request.

If the city does move forward and their justification is that this saves the city money on road maintenance, then that savings should be passed back to taxpayers. For instance, through a corresponding reduction in the millage rate. That should be part of the public discussion, not an afterthought.

As the city raises the pick up rates, remember that the citizens will have no options and no choice but to pay. This isn’t about a few extra dollars each quarter. It’s about whether the city should be mandating personal household decisions at all, and whether it’s getting good value for residents’ money if it does.

If you agree, the Council needs to hear it directly, and soon.

Public comment and social media posts alone won’t move a vote; emails to individual members do. 

Contact the Peachtree City Council at citycouncil@peachtree-city.org and ask them to:

1. Withdraw the city trash service initiative, else

2. Reject the current bids and rework the RFP

3. Remove mandatory yard waste and bulk pickup from the contract, leaving those as opt-in/pay-as-needed services

4. Simplify to weekly trash, biweekly recycling to lower costs and attract more competitive bidders

5. Commit to passing any city savings back to taxpayers, including consideration of a millage rate reduction

6. Place the final decision in the hands of the taxpayers via a voter referendum 

If enough residents speak up before the next vote, this can still be stopped or fixed. 

Silence will be read as consent.

Eric Imker,
Former City Council Member