Selecting One Peachtree City Waste Collection Provider Is Good Governance

As the Peachtree City Council and City staff review how to handle residential waste collection, either though the current program of three approved haulers or entering into a city-wide contract with one provider, there are advantages and disadvantages of both methods, and regardless of the outcome, there are some who will feel that Council made the wrong choice, which is to be expected.

When I started looking at the issue, I didn’t have a strong opinion either way because of my utility bills, trash collection is the lowest- much less than water, gas, electricity, internet, mobile phone- everything except Peachtree City Stormwater, but after looking at the data and listening and reading opinions, a city-wide provider is a cost-effective idea.

While hesitation around municipal contracts usually stems from a preference for free-market choice, the data suggests our current three-provider system functions more like an uncoordinated, higher-cost compromise for most residents.

Fundamentally, waste collection is a public health issue. Uncollected waste or improperly disposed of waste is a breeding ground for disease, attracts vermin, and pollutes waterways and other natural resources. If we approach from this perspective, selection of a service provider is more than just disposing trash.

The current three currently approved providers are GFL, Republic Industries, and Pollard. Through 2021 I’d had a contract with Waste Industries, which is part of GFL, for many years.

I cancelled GFL service because they kept missing pickups and, especially, recycle pickups. After repeated calls to GFL, I contacted City staff, but there was little they could do so I arranged service through Republic, and they’ve been my hauler ever since.

My wife told me we had pickup issues before COVID, but after COVID, the issues with GFL accelerated, and when I cancelled service, there was a portion of the three-month contract left since they do billing quarterly, but I received no refund even though they were not fulfilling their end of the contract.

In February, 2021, I was paying $52 per quarter for GFL and started with Republic at $59.25, not a huge difference. Since then, Republic has increased their price significantly- nearly 50% over one three-year period, much higher than the rate of inflation, and they currently charge $87.60 per quarter.

Comparing the current Republic charge of $87.60 against the other two approved haulers, Pollard and GFL, at $75 and $72, respectively, per quarter means if I switched to Pollard, I’d save $12.60 per quarter, or $50.40 per year, not a huge savings but not chump change either.

I’d save more going back to GFL, but no thank you. I simply want the trash picked up- with the recyclables, too, please.

That I can recall Republic misses pickups very infrequently- I can’t remember the last one- and is good about communicating service delays. They also charge a relative premium over the other two providers.

Other residents may pay more or less than me depending on services. The rates above were based on a current Republic invoice and calls to providers about the cost to establish new service in Peachtree City. All providers are required to provide recycling at no extra charge per current contract.

The current providers’ services are essentially identical, collection of a 96-gallon residential waste container once per week with a smaller recycle container on alternating weeks.

The proposed city-wide service based on the Request for Proposal (RFP) with the lowest cost hauler, Amwaste, is $63.45 per quarter with the addition of weekly recycle pickup so the first year everyone who has individually contracted service would save some money.

Peachtree City has about 13,400 households that need residential trash pickup. Of those, roughly 10% have no contract and dispose of trash some other way than curbside service.

Using the best estimates I can find, roughly 500 households have their own collective contract, mostly those that live on private streets or are part of Homeowner’s Associations (HOAs). Cresswind is an example, and they have a lower cost contract than Amwaste’s proposal.

Many HOAs such as Planterra do not have an HOA-wide contract.

This is why I don’t understand the pushback on a single city-wide provider: a very large majority of households in Peachtree City will see a cost reduction with other knock-on effects explained below.  

The edge cases always cause the biggest issues when there is change, and I’ll go through those.

As mentioned above some Homeowners Associations or those on private streets have contracts for less than the Amwaste’s proposal, likely because tight spacing of homes means less pickup time; however, some also require smaller trucks because private streets may not be built to the same standards as regular residential streets, which is a cost adder.

Those in HOA’s making public comments seem to be against a city-wide contract, but I’m not sure they’ve done their homework and called Amwaste for their own RFP. Being against something without doing the homework is problematic. Who knows- the HOAs and those on private streets may see a reduction also. The simple economy of scale would suggest it’s possible.

Also, it doesn’t seem to me an apples-to-apples comparison between Amwaste and the current hauler has been done- does the current provider pickup recycles weekly or every other week?

Additionally, it’s also a little disingenuous to be against one city-wide hauler because an HOA’s provider is cheaper when the vast majority of residents who don’t have a collective contract will see a cost reduction.

Some could say that that the rest of us in the City should band together to make our own contract, and it seems former Council member Mr. Eric Imker did this, but doing this work on behalf or residents is why we have elected government officials and City staff in the first place! He also found that with neighborhood turnover, his arrangements eventually fell apart, but kudos to him on his efforts!

Given comments in both The Citizen and at City Council meetings, alternate means of disposal outside the current three providers fall into three separate categories: lawful, illegal, and part of breaching a contract.

Some business owners may dispose of their household trash at their business or have other similar, lawful means of disposal, such as driving their trash to the Fayette County Transfer Station, and they would unfortunately have to start paying for service, but if all are required to participate in a city-wide contract, property taxes that pay for Keep Peachtree City Beautiful (KPTCB) should go down because they’d have less illegal disposal to take care of.

However, taxes will likely not go down enough to offset paying for trash pickups.

The KPTCB waste receptables along the cart paths and in parks and other public spaces are intended to hold waste generated when using City facilities such as the leftovers from a picnic, not for residential disposal. Today, property taxes fund KPTCB in line with the amount of pickup they do, and they pick up more than an incidental amount of residential trash from public bins.

I’m interested to see how the City pays to KPTCB to take care of illegal disposal.

For the residents that drive to the Fayette County Transfer station, I’m not sure how they save any money given the cost of fuel, vehicle depreciation and insurance, disposal cost ($1 per large bag), and time. If trash piles up for a month or more, I don’t see how this isn’t a public health issue.

It seems like a lot of effort to save $21.15 per month.

All of our current waste haulers prohibit the sharing of receptacles so residents that allow their neighbors to use their bin for free or otherwise are in breach of contract with their provider; however, given that seniors generate less waste than others, a senior discount is a good idea.

There are multiple ways city-wide contracts are administered and handled by Amwaste.

Lovejoy requires all single-family homes to participate, and a flat amount is added to all property tax bills, but residents are allowed to prepay directly to Amwaste.

Newnan contracts with Amwaste, and residents pay through the Newnan Sanitation Department.

Tyrone also contracts with Amwaste, and residents pay for service directly to Amwaste.

Given these methods, I suspect the direct service cost is less in Lovejoy and Newnan because the municipalities take care of billing and collections, including non-payment issues, which is a significant portion of any service provider’s cost. All Amwaste has to do is pickup the waste and respond to service calls.

A city-wide provider solves the problems many have experienced both as customers and taxpayers.

First, when the provider doesn’t pick up, the City can get involved and through fines to the provider, put some muscle behind a contract. In 2021, GFL couldn’t even be bothered to answer my phone calls at times. In addition to paying City fines, providers should refund clients when pickups are missed and not remedied within a reasonable amount of time.

Second, Amwaste’s proposal has the annual cost frozen for three years and then rates increase for the remaining two years tied to a measure of inflation, CPI-U, with an additional right to reprice if diesel fuel costs increase. 

This alone seems like a win: no cost increases for three years. Annualized CPI-U has been a little less than 3% from January, 2024, until now, so if that CPI-U trend holds steady, we’d see a $2 per quarter increase in year four and another $2 per quarter increase in year five. 

Republic has raised their rates on average once per year and much higher than 3%.

Any provider will increase costs if fuel costs increase, and Amwaste has indicated they will do this outside of CPI-U related increases.

Third, a reduction in heavy trash trucks from three providers to one extends the life of residential roads, and garbage trucks are some of the heaviest vehicles that routinely travel in neighborhoods.

Based on a slide from City public works, at a predicted Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of 60, which is the demarcation between “fair” and trending towards “poor” condition, the cost to refurbish asphalt pavement goes from $160,200 per mile to $230,500 per mile. It takes one weekly pickup of trash and recycles almost 18 years to reach a PCI of 60. For two pickups, it takes a little less than 14 years, and for three, it takes 10 years.

Fourth, as mentioned above, KPTCB will have to focus less on illegal disposal.

To summarize, the data that is still necessary to make a decision on one city-wide trash hauler are accurate apples-to-apples quotes from HOAs and those on private streets that have their own contracts, the proportion of households that already have a collective contract, and KPTCB and street repaving cost reduction estimates that will be reflected in decreased tax collections.

Even before this data is fully collected, it seems like that vast majority of Peachtree City residents with curbside trash service will see a cost reduction with Amwaste.

Freedom of choice is a core principle in America, but when allowing individual choice keeps rates artificially high and accelerates road damage and possibly leads to illegal dumping in public receptacles that is remedied by all taxpayers, working together on a collective contract simply amounts to governance.

A citywide contract isn’t about limiting choice; it’s about choosing a system that works for everyone.