Photo by Jon Anderson
A sanitation worker for Republic Services returns a cart to the curb after emptying it in the Scout Creek section of Trace Crossings in Hoover, Alabama, on June 11, 2021.
The Hoover City Council on Monday night cleared the way for a new company to take over the city’s garbage and recycling collection on Oct. 1 with some changes in service and some cost savings to the city.
The council authorized the newly formed Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority, a consortium created by five cities, to hire a company to pick up residents’ garbage, recycling, yard debris and other bulk items.
The authority hasn’t officially picked a new collection company yet but is in the final stages of negotiation of a proposed agreement with Amwaste, Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice said.
Hoover’s current collection company is Republic Services, which picks up residents’ garbage twice a week and recyclables on a separate day — Wednesday.
The proposal is for Amwaste to pick up garbage and/or recyclables twice a week, with the items comingled together. All items collected in the first pickup of the week would go to a landfill, and all items collected in the second pickup would go to a company in Montgomery called RePower South, which would sort the materials and pull out any items that can be recycled, Rice said.
Residents no longer would be required to separate their recyclables, but people who want to make a special effort to recycle could save those items to put out for the second pickup, Councilman Casey Middlebrooks said.
Amwaste has been providing this type of service to Vestavia Hills for 10 months and has actually increased the volume of recycled materials coming from Vestavia Hills by 75%, Rice said.
Running the garbage and recycling trucks twice a week instead of a combined three times a week saves money.
Residents’ pickup days could change because the city will be switching from two routes to three routes, Rice said. Now, some residents’ garbage is picked up on Mondays and Thursdays or Tuesdays and Fridays. The new proposal is to have pickup on Mondays and Thursdays, Tuesdays and Fridays, or Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Amwaste, once officially approved as the service provider, will draw up proposed new routes and pickup zones for the city to approve, Rice said.
RePower South’s sorting facility in Montgomery accepts a wider variety of recyclable materials, including all types of plastics with recycle markings — not just plastics with a No. 1 or No. 2 on them, Rice said.
Another big change is that residents now will be required to bag any leaves they want picked up, instead of having a leaf vacuum truck pick them up, Rice said. The leaf vacuuming has proven to be an inefficient way of collection, and Hoover is one of the last cities in central Alabama that still vacuums leaves, he said.
Residents will place their bagged leaves by the curb for pickup either with regular garbage (if in a small quantity) or by a boom truck (for larger amounts of leaves), Rice said. Bagging the leaves will result in a substantial savings in money and fewer leaves being washed into stormwater drains and waterways, he said. It also should make leaf collection go more quickly because vacuuming leaves takes longer, especially when leaves are wet, Rice said.
Currently, Republic uses nine leaf vacuum trucks and 10 boom trucks in Hoover to pick up yard debris and large bulk items such as furniture and appliances. The new proposal is for Amwaste to use 12 boom trucks (and no leaf vacuum trucks) in Hoover.
Hoover currently pays Republic about $8 million a year to pick up garbage, recycling and other waste from 26,514 single-family houses and condominiums, Rice said. With escalating costs, if Hoover were to keep the same kind of service provided now, it would cost the city $9.57 million a year, he said.
The new proposal (with the different level of service) would cost the city $7.17 million, which is about $892,000 less than the current cost, Rice said.
Amwaste is in the process of trying to acquire the garbage and recycling carts already being used in Hoover, and if Amwaste is successful, residents would simply keep the carts they already use, Rice said.
Councilman Mike Shaw said he initially was skeptical of the proposed changes but after reviewing them more carefully believes it will be a smarter way to do recycling.
Council President John Lyda said he had been concerned the city would not be able to continue offering a recycling option due to escalating costs in that industry, but the creativity and ingenuity involved with this new proposal is remarkable and much appreciated.
Rice said Vestavia Hills already is enjoying this new type of service, and he is looking forward to implementing it in Hoover.
Hoover would be the first member of the Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority to utilize the authority for garbage service because of the Sept. 30 expiration date of its current contract with Republic, Rice said. Vestavia Hills is considering officially switching its contract with Amwaste to go through the authority as well because of the advantages the authority offers, Rice said.
Other cities in the authority currently include Mountain Brook, Pelham and Trussville, but Clanton and Homewood also are in the process of joining the authority. The more cities that join, the lower the cost per household, Rice said.
Also, if Amwaste (or another service provider) fails to provide quality service, the authority can more easily sever ties with the service provider.
The proposed agreement allows the authority to charge Amwaste $250 if it fails to satisfy complaints within 24 hours of Amwaste being notified of a problem by the city. The penalty may rise to $500 if there are more than two unresolved complaints at the same residence in the same month.
Rice said Amwaste has cameras that rotate 360 degrees on all of its trucks, allowing for monitoring of service being provided.
Also, if Amwaste fails to provide the adequate amount of functioning trucks and equipment, the authority could charge the company $500 per day per truck.
Once the attorneys for Amwaste finish reviewing the proposed agreement, the authority will call a special meeting to vote on it, Rice said.
