toledoblade.com --

West Toledoan Gloria Wumer plans to start filling her recycling bin today and maybe have it full in just less than a month.

"I have very few recyclables, and it will take me that long to fill it up," Ms. Wumer said from her home near Westfield Franklin Park mall.

Nevertheless, she's making the change in habit and will put as few as two or three plastic bottles out front every two weeks for pickup because the city increased the fee for people who decide to throw away plastic and glass bottles, along with cardboard, instead of recycling.

Yesterday was the first time Ms. Wumer, 75, placed a bin with glass and plastic recyclables at the curb.

It didn't get hauled away.

She promised to try again in two weeks.

Toledo City Council on Tuesday decided by an 8-4 vote to increase the city's trash collection fee to $7 a month for those who don't recycle and $2 a month for those who do.

The refuse fee will increase again on May 1, 2009, to $8.50 a month for those who don't recycle and drop to $1 for those who do.

Beginning May 1, 2010, the fee will increase again to $10 a month for those who don't recycle, and drop to zero for those who participate in recycling.

Voting to approve the fee under the $7-$2 plan with the increase to $10-0 in 2010, were Joe McNamara, D. Michael Collins, Mike Craig, George Sarantou, Betty Shultz, Mark Sobczak, Tom Waniewski, and Wilma Brown. Voting no were Councilmen Phil Copeland, Frank Szollosi, Lindsay Webb, and Michael Ashford.

The phased-in schedule was a compromise reached after Mr. Collins and Mr. McNamara suggested altering the fee this year to the $10-0 structure.

The city's refuse fee was first enacted last year. It raises about $4.8 million a year and would have expired April 30 had it not been approved by council.

The new structure, beginning May 1, is expected to generate about $47,000 less than the current $5.50-$3 fee.

When the current fee went into effect, the Finkbeiner administration predicted the rate of recycling would increase from 17 percent to about 40 percent because of the $2.50 monthly savings.

Thirty-eight percent of people are pledged to recycle while only about 28 percent currently do so, said Bill Franklin, the city's director of public service.

City officials said there has been resistance to the change, but think the new fee could alleviate that.

"My neighbor takes my papers over to Kroger's and that's what I've had most to recycle," Ms. Wumer said. "The rise in price to $10 was too much, so I have to do it."

That's exactly the kind of reaction Mr. Franklin and councilmen who supported the increase are expecting.

Under the new fee structure, the number of people who recycle is projected to increase to 48 percent by the end of this year, 57 percent by the end of 2009, and 70 percent by the end of 2010, Mr. Franklin said.

People who want to participate in the city's recycling program, and get the discount, can pick up a pledge card and starter kit at Kroger and The Andersons stores, the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, and from city offices as well as online at the city's Web site, www.toledo.oh.gov, Mr. Franklin said.

Some areas of the city recycle in greater numbers than others.

Forty percent of homes in areas of West Toledo and southwest Toledo recycle, while some central city neighborhoods are below 10 percent, Mr. Franklin said.

The Old Orchard area of West Toledo has the greatest percentage - near 80 percent, he said.

Opponents of the fee, including council President Sobczak, said it is unfair because people in the most economically depressed neighborhoods do not recycle.

Mr. Sobczak also called it unconscionable to charge $10 because renters may not get the option to pay the recycling rate.

Mr. Collins, who crafted the $10-0 fee with Mr. McNamara, said it was wrong to insinuate people living in the central city would not recycle.

Even with the increase in recycling since the fee was enacted last year, the city continues to bury thousands of tons of newspapers, glass, plastic, and other finite resources in Toledo's Hoffman Road landfill, hastening the day when the dump will run out of space.

Expanding curbside recycling would give the city greater use of the landfill, Mr. Collins said.

Mr. Sarantou on Tuesday unsuccessfully promoted a trash fee schedule that would have continued the current $5.50-$3 fee until May 1, 2009, at which time it would have increased to $8.50 a month for those who don't recycle and $1 a month for those who do.

His plan also had the fee raised to $10 for those who don't recycle, and drop to zero for those who participate in recycling by 2010.

Contact Ignazio Messina at:
imessina@theblade.com
or 419-724-6171.

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