City officials are considering a plan to bring curbside recycling to Billings by switching to a “pay as you throw” system for trash collection next year.
Now, all residential customers pay the same fee for garbage pickup, regardless of how much they have hauled away. The service includes regular trash collection once a week and a monthly pickup for additional refuse.
The so-called extras program is not only inequitable, it’s also inefficient, unsustainable and unsafe for workers, Deputy Public Works Director Jennifer Duray told the Billings City Council on Monday evening during a presentation of her department’s recommendations for the 2024 budget.
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As part of the annual financial planning process, public works staff researched solid waste fees to make sure rates would sustain future trash collection services and landfill operations.
They came up with a proposal to change the city’s solid waste fees and replace the extra pickup program with a monthly curbside recycling service. If the council gives it the go-ahead, city workers could start collecting cardboard as soon as July 1. The effort could eventually be expanded to an automated single-stream system in which all recyclables, including newspaper, plastic and aluminum, could be picked up in the same bin.
Residential customers in Billings are currently paying $12.45 a month for trash removal and landfill disposal. If the council decides to make the changes suggested by staff, the estimated monthly cost for garbage pickup would increase to $13.90 next year. City estimates show it’ll cost customers around $16.80 a month to keep the same service they have now if council chooses to reject recommended changes.
Staff also proposed increasing fees in 2024 for commercial and roll-off collection services by 11.3 and 8.1 percent, respectively.
Solid waste is the last unmetered utility in Billings, Duray said.
“For water, we’d never go back to a system where everybody pays the same,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re filling a pool or have a xeriscaped lawn, you’d pay the same amount. But we are doing that for trash.”
Switching to a system in which those who use more, pay higher rates gives customers a way to manage costs.
“They control what they put out, they control what they pay,” Duray said. “Right now, there’s no price signal to have people decrease waste. There’s no reason to do it.”
But, she explained, charging fees based on use is the most effective tool the city has to encourage recycling and incentivize waste reduction. Both benefit the environment and help extend the life of the landfill.
The public works department also suggested increasing landfill fees in 2024. If approved, the cost for disposing of waste from within the city would rise to $26 a ton, an increase of $2.50 from this year.
“That’s still a buck lower than Bozeman,” Duray said.
The proposed charge for bringing trash from outside Billings to dump in the city landfill would increase from 2023 by $3.75 a ton to $39 next year. The cost to dispose of garbage from other states would rise by $5 a ton to $59 next year if the council approves the recommended rate hikes. The increases would bring in an estimated $2.3 million to the city coffers.
Getting rid of the extra program would also save Billings money by increasing efficiency and improving safety for the city’s garbage collectors, said Billings Solid Waste Supervisor Kyle Foreman.
“We’re going insane trying to manage this program,” he told the council, sharing photos of hazardous sites they had to clean up after customers overfilled trash cans and left piles of garbage around the bins and scattered along the streets. “Right now, there is no cost control. We’re just throwing assets at it trying to get the phone to stop ringing.”
City workers aren’t the only ones who would like to see curbside recycling in Billings. Foreman said he often hears from people who think it’s “absurd” that the state’s largest city still doesn’t provide the service.
A handful of residents shared support for the proposed recycling program during the public comment period shortly before the meeting wrapped up at around 10 p.m. Monday.
Still, some members of the council had concerns about the city making the changes, particularly on a tight timeline that would leave little time to educate customers ahead of the switch.
The public will have another opportunity to weigh in before the council votes on the proposed changes during its June 12 meeting. It is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on the second floor of City Hall, 220 N. 27th Street.
For instructions on how to participate in the meeting online or by phone or for information on submitting comments to council members ahead of time, visit billingsmt.gov.