Trash-talking sense

A proposal by the City of Toledo and Lucas County to regionalize and privatize trash pickup is a good deal for city and suburban ratepayers. Toledo City Council members should include the initiative in the municipal budget they enact, despite the predictable opposition of a city union and its political allies.

Most Toledo residents who recycle pay the city $8.50 a month to collect their refuse. Senior households that are eligible for homestead-exemption discounts pay $5 a month. These fees do not cover the $16.5 million annual cost of trash collection; the city pays about $7.5 million a year to subsidize the service.

That expense has become harder to bear during the recession. It has required the city to shift money to its general fund from its capital budget, restricting the city's ability to fix streets and make long-term infrastructure improvements.

To reflect the true cost of trash pickup, Toledo Mayor Mike Bell warns that monthly collection fees may need to rise immediately to $7.50 for seniors and $12.50 for other residents. That's less than suburban residents often pay, but it still would create a hardship for many of the city's 96,000 households.

Under the five-year regional plan offered by the city and county, a private hauler, Allied Waste Services, would contract with the county's Solid Waste Management District. The company would pick up trash and collect recyclable material in the city and in suburban communities that choose to sign up.

One proposed option would charge all city households $8.15 a month for trash pickup. Under a better alternative, the fee for seniors would remain $5 a month, and other households would pay $8.95 -- a 5 percent increase. It would be even better if the plan offered premium services for an additional fee, such as pickup that does not require homeowners to take their refuse containers to the curb.

Allied would pay the city $8 million for its fleet of trash trucks, about $1 million less than the city owes for the 40 trucks it bought when it switched to automated collection in 2009. Toledo Deputy Mayor Steve Herwat told The Blade's editorial board this week that the expense would be easier to absorb than the amount the city would have to pay, now and in the future, to continue to support the system.

The new plan also would return city households to a standard collection system throughout the year, eliminating the unpopular "leap forward" schedule after holidays. The city would continue to handle billing for trash collection.

Allied Waste would be obligated to use the city's Hoffman Road landfill. The plan also includes a new recycling facility in the city.

Opposition to the proposal so far mostly amounts to a demand to hoard city assets -- and the union-represented public jobs they support -- whatever the cost of keeping that control. The unfair labor practices charge filed yesterday by the union that represents city refuse workers should not be allowed to block the plan, as long as the city honors its pledge to use its best efforts to place the 72 workers who would be affected in new jobs.

There are incentives for Lucas County suburbs to join the plan as well. Pete Gerken, president of the county Board of Commissioners, says including Toledo in the countywide plan would enable Allied Waste to charge suburban customers less than many are paying now, while offering greater recycling options.

In addition, Mr. Gerken says, customers would get meaningful financial incentives to recycle. These would be not merely "coupons for cat food and coffee," he says, but bargains at local retailers that could amount to $175 a year.

Toledo city government doesn't need to stay in the refuse-collection business if a private hauler can do the job better and more cheaply, and if a regional approach yields economies of scale. The city-county plan promises to deliver both advantages, and to strengthen the foundation for regional sharing of other public services. It merits adoption.