A number of mostly small and independent trash haulers pleaded with Cobb officials Wednesday to work with them to resolve long-standing service issues.
Most adamantly, they asked that Cobb not approve a code amendment that they claimed would put many of them out of business.
Even before the “trash summit” at the Cobb Civic Center, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said neither she nor any of her colleagues were in favor of a designating a single hauler for each of four commissioner districts.
That was at the heart of a proposal by the Cobb Sustainability, Solid Waste and Beautification director presented last week during a work session.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell had previously suggested delaying trash service changes until January, but Cupid was hopeful changes to the proposal could be hammered out by the time commissioners vote on code amendments later this month.
UPDATE: After we published this story, Birrell included the following information in her weekly e-mail newsletter:
“As the code amendment package has been advertised, there will still be a public hearing at 9 a.m. on Sept. 13 on all proposed code amendments. However, after the public hearing, we plan to make a motion and vote to table the Solid Waste code section. It is a consensus of the BOC—none of us are in favor of the proposed one hauler per district.”
She and fellow Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill attended the summit along with Cupid. You can watch the full two-hour summit below.
The trash-related proposals are expected to be pulled before commissioners vote on code amendments later this month.
“We want a code amendment framework to address all these issues,” Cupid said at the outset of the meeting, referring to five areas of concern that she said have continued since the recession.
They include some areas that haulers will not serve, inconsistent service, multiple trash haulers serving the same neighborhood, illegal dumping and a lack of curbside recycling.
Kimberly White, executive director of Keep Cobb Beautiful, a government agency, said the county had to close several recycling dropoff spots it maintained because the private hauler it contracted with “couldn’t keep up.”
Some of those locations became an eyesore, she said, and KCB is trying to reopen more spots.
Shannan Salvey, co-owner of S & B Junk Removal, said in prepared remarks that the county “couldn’t handle recycling and now you want to manage trash for the whole county.”
She said the proposed code amendment would “take away our customers’ pursuit of happiness.” A single-hauler monopoly, she said, goes against “the foundations of our country.”
Unlike the previous work session, Wednesday’s meeting with the haulers included a lengthy discussion on recycling.
The proposed code amendment also would have required trash haulers to provide recycling services, something Cupid said residents have been complaining about.
Jon Swierenga of East Cobb, owner of Trash Taxi, said he and other haulers offer recycling, but it’s not mandatory and it comes with an additional fee.
When White said that “charging extra for recycling is too much” for some customers, he responded that “it’s not that we don’t want to recycle. But we cannot absorb all that cost.
“It’s not that the service isn’t available,” Swierenga said. “It’s that customers don’t want to pay for it. That’s the issue. We want to provide the services but we can’t do it for free.”
Also sitting at the table was Parks Huff, a noted Cobb zoning attorney who was representing the haulers. He suggested improving communications with the public as well as the haulers.
“It costs the same to pick up recycling as it does trash,” he said. “That needs to be communicated.”
He also said he didn’t know there was a recycling station at Lost Mountain Park until he went there one day.
Haulers said they were blindsided by the code amendment, which was proposed without their input. Jonathan Jenkins, head of the Cobb solid waste department, said he hadn’t met with haulers since 2019.
“We need time to address these issues,” Swierenga said. “We would like to hear of complaints that we can respond to in 24-48 hours. We can fix this without disrupting what we have.”
He said he was optimistic in saying that “I see a win-win down the road on this.”
Cupid reiterated that there isn’t a proposed 18 percent fee increases for sanitation services that some opponents of the proposed code amendments had claimed.
“We want every resident to have access to trash service, a robust recycling program and reduce litter in the county,” she said in a statement in her newsletter Friday. “This is a constructive meeting, and we are going to work to improve communications and work towards a solution.”
Related:
- Birrell asks for Cobb to delay proposed trash service changes
- Proposed changes to Cobb trash service draw citizen opposition
- $1 billion in 2022 Cobb property tax bills issued; due Oct. 15
- Cobb settles lawsuit with Uber driver; agrees to pay $250K
- Cobb DOT to start Bill Murdock-Pine Road realignment
- East Piedmont Road resurfacing project continues
- East Cobb resurfacing projects OK’d with 2022 SPLOST funds
- Cobb commissioners adopt $1.2 billion fiscal year budget
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