There was a lot to do recently about a pretty big hike in the fee for garbage pick up as Allied Waste Services added curbside recycling services for County residents that live outside the Concord and Kannapolis city limits.
Allied Waste added the recycling service for the unincorporated portions of the county at the specific request of the Cabarrus County Commission.
I'm one of the customers who now has to pay 43% more for my garbage pick up. While I love finally being able to recycle, I think something is not quite right.
My family of 3 members puts out a full recycling bin once a week, next to a big 95 gallon rolling cart with exactly one garbage bag in it. One of my neighbors down the street, who lives alone, doesn't recycle at all and puts her big rolling cart overflowing with garbage bags (usually the lid can't be closed) on the same curb.
The problem I have is that we both pay the exact same amount for our garbage collection.
Apparently nobody on the County Commission has ever heard of the internationally well known and accepted "the polluter pays principle".
Besides the "good feeling" you get from doing something positive for the environment, why should anyone recycle when it takes a lot more time and effort and your neighbor, who just pollutes away, only has to pay the same amount you do?
In a letter I received from Allied Waste Services, which was sent out after they received numerous complaints from customers about the raise in fees, they say that one of the main reasons they added the curbside recycling was that "Cabarrus County wishes to encourage more residents to recycle in order to better protect our environment".
Can someone explain to me how you are encouraging residents to recycle by having them pay more and ask them to invest more time and effort at the same time? Basically you're asking people to work harder for something they have to pay more for.
What's even worse is that people who say they can't afford to pay 43% more for their garbage pick up will now start dumping their trash everywhere or just burning it in their yard. Why not tell people they won't have to pay more if they participate in the recycling program? Let the people, who are too lazy to get of their butts and just want to dump all their trash in one pile, pick up the slack for everyone who does care about the environment.
Also, I don't see anyone talking about the fact that all that recycled material is worth money. I'm sure companies pay Allied Waste Services for their cans, paper and glass, because all that stuff is raw material for an industrial process.
So I'm pretty sure that Allied Waste is getting extra money from 2 ends now. We pay more for their services while at the same time providing them with more material they can sell to other companies.
Why not include the proceeds from the collected recyclable material in to consideration when Allied Waste Services rates are determined? One good example for this I found in the State of Washington where they require this.
Once again logic seems missing in Cabarrus County government.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Why doesn't it pay to recycle in Cabarrus County?
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10 comments:
Well, this is one area where you've got me stumped. I'm used to you telling me how bad the free markets are and on this issue you're basically making the argument for a free market...
I'll give you the best system I have seen.
My Uncle lives out in "The Sticks" near Pensacola FL. There is no county or city trash service and it's so far out of the way most of the big private companies don't see it as a good investment to service 200 or so customers 25 miles away from their next closest route.
A local fellow picks up the trash for the folks who live out there. He does exactly what you are saying. The more his customers recycle the less he charges them because the money he makes from the recycling out weighs the price break.
He has an incentive to recycle; his customers have an incentive to recycle. It's a two way street!
Here's the catch. I their county, there are no cumbersome regulations for the pickup of trash. There are no state laws or boards regulating who can and cannot be in the business of garbage collection. And lastly, there is no heavy excise tax or environmental impact fees that folks have to pay at the landfill.
See, when ignorant governments like Cabarrus County AREN'T in the picture, the private markets can do wonder.
Oh, and allow my to pull out my tinfoil hat for a moment to say that I'm sure someone in Cabarrus County Govco got some scratch for Allied Waste's new contract.
It's the way things work. And everyone knows that the county couldn't care less who recycles
Thierry:
Finally, something that you and I agree on completely. I stopped my service because of the cost. I have always recycled my trash and I sell the cans for .68 cents per lb but not because Cabarrus County has done anything to encourage me to do so. I'm not gonna say where or how I dump my trash but I guarantee you that Allied Waste is not gonna make a dime off of me. And to beat it all, we are stuck with this Company for the next five years. If you look in the minutes of the June 07 County Commission Minutes you can fine the contract that John Day and Allied Waste Agreed to. As a matter of fact the Customers voted 2 years ago not to pay more to recycle.
Thanks for the comments.
Let me just clarify that I'm not necessarily opposed to paying more for the recycling service.
I can imagine Allied Waste coming up with an excuse saying that the total cost for this curbside recycling is even more than the 43% raise in fees, maybe they'll say that the value of the recyclables pays for part of the cost and the raise in fees pays for the rest of the cost.
However I can't come up with any logical explanation on why someone that recycles should pay as much as someone who doesn't. This seems crazy to me, especially if you want "to encourage more residents to recycle in order to better protect our environment".
Aaron -
Oh, and allow my to pull out my tinfoil hat for a moment to say that I'm sure someone in Cabarrus County Govco got some scratch for Allied Waste's new contract.
That'd be a violation of a couple of North Carolina General Statues, and that's quite an accusation.
Name names or go home: anonymous accusations are for cowards.
Fellas - You're wrong.
I can prove this in the from of a challenge. Let's start with Thierry's comment.
I can imagine Allied Waste coming up with an excuse saying that the total cost for this curbside recycling is even more than the 43% raise in fees, maybe they'll say that the value of the recyclables pays for part of the cost and the raise in fees pays for the rest of the cost.
If that's the case, allow me to make a proposition.
You start a recycling business.
Create a business model and a reasonable estimate of the start-up capital you will need, and I will help you get the funds.
Then, I will help you lobby our local governments - all of them, in fact - to open up all recycling to private companies.
Prices are up for most metals and rising faster than inflation - this includes aluminum. So, using Thierry's logic that profit can be made from both the collection and redistribution side.
If I'm right - you won't take the bait.
If I'm wrong, you'll be wealthier, you'll save Cabarrus County residents, you'll encourage recycling, and you'll make me eat crow: a "win"^4 proposition.
I await your response.
Justin
I don't get what you're trying to proof.
The 2 points I'm trying to make in this post are
1) Nobody talks about the fact that the recyclable material is worth money.
2) It is insane to claim that you're trying to encourage people to recycle while you make them pay a lot more for the service and there is no difference what so ever between someone who recycles and someone who doesn't. It's like your boss trying to encourage you to work harder by cutting your wages by 43%.
Since recycled material is worth money, why not give people who recycle a rebate on their garbage collecting fees?
Justin,
First of all, no proof is necessary when wearing said tinfoil hat. If it were then the whole "9/11 truth movement" would be just a bunch of nerds in their mom's basement.
Second, If you think that underhanded kickbacks are exclusively a democrat issue then you really need to get out more. Republican politicians do more than just solicit sex from prostitutes and undercover cops in mens rooms.
A Republican invented the no bid contract for God's sake.
But I'm used to out and out partisans looking at everything on their side of the aisle with rose colored glasses. That and laughing when the other guy gets kicked in the crotch but grabbing their daddy's shotgun when it's one of their buddies. Quite honestly, your comment reminded me of a Hannity or Limbaugh rant.
Seriously dude, calm the hell down. It's called a joke.
Aaron -
Seriously dude, calm the hell down. It's called a joke.
Really, what if I suggested that the reason that cops make so little is that those paying them assume they are on the take and/or earning enough doing private security on the side with their "GovCo"-issued uniforms and patrol cars? You would be all up in arms in all of your ex-cop glory with soliloquies of unreadable length. However, it would be easy enough for me to refer to the myriad of instances of police - in this country - abusing their powers and involving themselves in activities ranging from the ethically shady to the outright illegal.
It would be wrong for me to do that; because I would be besmirching the service of legions of public servants to capitalize on the well-publicized fall of a scant fraction of that population. Which is exactly what you did with that comment.
The issue is the people you're talking about are your neighbors. I know it's chic for the intellectually lazy to dismiss all elected officials as "a bunch of crooks"; but as I've found out recently - it's not too hard to uncover inconsistencies when they exist.
Those of us who bother to do the research earn the right to castigate our officials when there's proof of wrongdoing. Other than that, the vast majority of our local elected officials are doing more for the community than you are.
Specific to the Allied Waste situation - for a Commissioner to be on the take: it would require the cooperation of an untold number of people to secure what is really a small profit. And that brings me to...
Thierry - Again, I didn't expect you to take the wager or to really understand why I offered it to you in the first place; because this situation is not about pollution - it's about government making a choice for people where they shouldn't have.
If selling the recyclables were really worth it, than Allied Waste would simply sort out the trash as it comes to the dump. Or, if they were socially minded, they would create a program to let indigents do the sorting themselves in a sort of 21st-century, weak-dollar gleaning operation.
The reason you won't start your own, local recycling business is that same reason that Allied Waste charged what they charged to provide recycling. It's basically a second garbage run. Your issue that someone else should pay for YOUR service goes to show you what happens when government - at any level - meddles where the markets could most likely create a solution that would be better and tick fewer people off.
Acually there was $25,000.00 that Allied Waste paid the County, but I don't believe that anyone single person recieved any profit from this contract, however its obvious that there was little effort to get the best deal for the individual customer. I think that Trash collection is a big problem and the County took the easy way out, but what do I know, I like John McCain and Pat McCrory....
You're half right Justin: If you "were" to say something like that I might behave just as you have on my comments.
But again, If I "were" to say that engineers are a bunch of overeducated, overpaid jackasses who spend all their time telling skilled workers how things should work while those same workers are left to make it actually work, you might bruise your knee yet again on the underside of your desk and go into some tangent about how the "office" is cherished or treasured or respected or whatever the heck else you said whilst on your soapbox.
As for me: you'll forgive me if I jump past the knee jerk alarmism and move straight to the end of it all where I realize that you know as much about law enforcement as I do about nuclear fusion and move on with my life. There, see how easy that was.
People say stupid, uninformed things all the time. It's a fact of life. I've come to realize that and I don't get all huffy when someone questions insults or jokes about things I care about. Whether they claim Tinfoil Hat amnesty or do it simply to be an A$$Hole.
But no Justin, I'm not going to say anything at all about your job or anything else personal.
You will have to forgive me for not coming to the pity party for all the politicians who CHOSE to become such knowing full well that the modern political process is about as sophisticated and refined as a daycare food fight.
It might seem edgy and hip to throw out insults coupled with some links to some of your previous posts but It's also intellectually lazy at this point to waste an inch of Blog space on Coy Privette. In the end you just come of like you always do when someone disagrees with you: as a grandstanding, self righteous douchebag.
Aaron - I will have to say I found this amusing:
But no Justin, I'm not going to say anything at all about your job or anything else personal.
But, scoot down just a few paragraphs and there's this:
In the end you just come of like you always do when someone disagrees with you: as a grandstanding, self righteous douchebag.
The point - that you missed entirely - is that it would be wrong for me to say denigrating things about police officers. As I have friends and family that are in law enforcement around the country, I know that the overwhelming majority of them are doing a thankless job and I knew it before you blogged about it.
Similarly, it's wrong for you to publish an assumption that one of the five commissioners is on the take without doing any research to back it up. Especially when these people are all rather accessible via e-mail.
It was just more convenient for you to besmirch someone's character in some off-hand assumption and publish it to the world.
Many people have no use for bloggers because they espouse opinions without research. It's their First Amendment right; but I believe that now that We The People have our own press - we should use common decency when operating it.
You will have to forgive me for not coming to the pity party for all the politicians who CHOSE to become such knowing full well that the modern political process is about as sophisticated and refined as a daycare food fight.
Aaron, the only one lobbing the sloppy joes around here is you.
The fact is that you can say that the County Commission were idiotic about or that it was an ill-advised decision. Heck, I let Steve make it a post on my blog and was happy to do it.
I've worked with the people on the County Commission serving on the County Parks and Recreation Board. The most of them are well-meaning public servants who make decisions in what they feel is in the best interest of the community. Obviously, they are going to make decisions that miss the mark from time to time.
This trash situation seems to be one of them. I agree with Steve that they could have done the whole thing a bit better.
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