PORT ANGELES — A plan to establish a separate, extra recycling fee for city residents created “a firestorm” of opposition last fall before it died for lack of support, Public Works & Utilities Director Glenn Cutler recalled earlier this week at a city Utility Advisory Committee meeting.
But with the recycling program now facing a $359,000 deficit from revenue not covering costs, the committee — which includes three Port Angeles City Council members — decided to take another stab at covering recycling costs by agreeing to consider if spreading the pain might be more palatable to residents.
The committee Tuesday directed city Public Works & Utilities to come up with a plan that would eliminate the deficit in five years through a 13 percent overall solid waste collection rate increase that the agency says is needed to eliminate the deficit.
The plan also would cover costs generated by six years of deficit-causing inflation for a program that has not seen a rate increase since 2006, Larry Dunbar, a public works deputy director, said Thursday.
The total cost of the deficit is $5.30 per customer, per month, Dunbar said.
The hike would cost households about $1 a month and be permanent for the 3,100 households who pay $27.20 per month for weekly garbage pickup and the 3,900 households who pay $19.75 for every-other-week pickup.
“This is the result of the solid waste utility not generating enough money,” Dunbar told the committee Tuesday.
Proposal in September
The rate-increase proposal will be presented to the committee in September.
Then the panel will make a recommendation to the City Council in time to potentially change rates beginning in January, Solid Waste Division Superintendent Tom McCabe said.
Garbage is collected by the city, and recycled paper and plastic by Waste Connections.
City residents are not required to recycle, and about 1,700 customers do not — they did not request the giant bins that hold recycled paper and plastic — but they still help cover the cost of the program through the general collection rates they pay for garbage pickup.
The committee, which is chaired by City Councilman Dan Di Guilio and includes City Councilwoman Sissi Bruch and Mayor Cherie Kidd, rejected the idea of charging customers more only for recycling to cover the deficit.
Councilwoman Brooke Nelson filled in Tuesday for Bruch, who was absent.
The option of charging more only for recycling garnered 55 percent approval from weekly customers and 51 percent approval from every-other-week users in a January survey completed by 1,684 households and presented at the meeting.
Support recycling
Respondents did express strong support for the recycling program “for the societal and environmental benefits it provides,” according to the survey.
Eighty-eight percent of weekly customers and 94 percent of every-other-week customers said they favored the existing program.
The committee also rejected cutting program costs by eliminating every-other-week pickup, a move that would create “trash issues,” Kidd said.
Getting rid of every-other-week pickup also would be unworkable for commercial customers who cannot wait more than two weeks to get rid of their garbage, McCabe said.
McCabe also noted that a city the size of Port Angeles is required to have some type of recycling program.
Last October, when the committee considered charging extra just for recycling, the idea received great opposition, Cutler recalled.
Kidd said residents would feel they were being “penalized” by being charged separately for the service.
“That’s the perception, and it’s offensive to many people,” Kidd said.
The non-City Council members of the Utility Advisory Committee are Dean Reed, Paul Elliott and Murven Sears II.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
