The purpose of this Work Session is to advance discussion related to the City’s current residential waste hauling system. Currently, the City has six separate waste haulers with overlapping service areas. Those current haulers include County Recycling, Inc. dba County Sanitation, Waste Pro of Florida, Inc. dba J.D. Parker & Sons, Waste Connections Inc., Waste Management Inc., of Florida, Republic Services of Florida Inc., dba Seaside Sanitation, and Peterson's Service Corporation. These overlapping service areas cause unnecessary wear and tear on city streets, citizen confusion regarding service provider, confusion between haulers regarding customer base, and creates a system that allows residents to go unnoticed when they choose to have no trash service.

Under the City’s current requirements, companies are required to submit an annual waste hauling permit application along with a $500 permit fee.  Once the application is approved by the City Council the companies are allowed to operate within the city limits from January 1 to December 31 of a calendar year. Each hauler must collect a 10% franchise fee from their customers as described in resolution No. 2017-02 and submit to the City a list of their active customers quarterly.  To change the current method of service requires a three year notice to all current haulers.

After a recent independent audit, it was determined nearly 2,000 residences were not listed on any of the current contracted hauler’s customer list and are not receiving any waste pickup service. It was also concluded the waste haulers are currently servicing 720 residences that appear to be outside of the city and including them on their quarterly customer statements. These situations stem from confusion regarding overlapping service areas and confusion regarding service area borders. Finally, the analysis provided a recommendation that the City “should consider reducing the number of allowed haulers.”

After discussions with the haulers, it is apparent a system with multiple haulers is uncommon, and difficult to manage, and a move to a single hauler system should be considered.

In addition to reducing the number of waste haulers within the city, staff recommends a system where the City places the cost of waste pickup service on each property tax bill and then pays the contracted waste hauler directly. This system is preferred by the waste haulers and will create a more manageable billing system that will reduce cost for haulers, and ultimately citizens, while assuring waste service is provided for every residence, eliminating any incentive to dispose of waste in a manner other than curbside pickup.