JPs add recycling for 17,700 in county

Monthly sanitation rate up to $26.58

The Pulaski County Quorum Court approved the addition of recycling services for the 17,700 residents living in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Monthly sanitation rates -- which also include weekly garbage collection, bulk item pickup, limbs and brush pickup, and old tire collection -- will increase to $26.58 monthly. Residents' trimonthly sanitation bill will increase to $79.74, including any state and local taxes.

The increase will begin appearing in bills June 1.

The rate increase is not solely attributed to the addition of recycling services, county officials said. Waste Management, the county's long-time collection contractor, raises the county's rates annually by about $1.50 in correlation to national Consumer Price Index fluctuations.

To avoid having to approve and impose new rates every year, county officials set a rate that anticipates five years of increases. Rates are set higher than Waste Management's charges at the time, thus building a reserve fund that can be dipped into in later years as the index increases.

"During this three or four months of negotiation [with Waste Management], this was the best deal that we came up with, because you got something extra for the increase, which is the recycling," said the county's Public Works Director Barbara Richard.

According to Richard, her office has long been "inundated" with request for a recycling service.

Tuesday's increase is the first time the county has raised rates since 2009. The new contract will last five years.

While several of the justices of the peace heard overwhelming support from their constituents, a minority voted against the rate increase hoping to save the county's lower income residents from the extra expense.

Justice of the Peace Doug Reed, R-Roland, had fielded a small handful of supporting phone calls from constituents in the "more wealthy areas" of his district.

But on Tuesday he voted in the interest of folks on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. Justices of the Peace Phil Stowers, R-Maumelle, Lillie McMullen, D-Little Rock, and Aaron Robinson, R-Jacksonville voted in similar fashion, rendering the vote 11 to 4.

John Funkhouser, of the Marche Community just northwest of North Little Rock, crunched the numbers: the rate increase will cost his household an extra $60 annually.

"There are many of my neighbors and other county residents that $60 means a lot to. As a retired couple ... $5 worth of trash pickup means a lot to me," Funkhouser said.

His complaints also centered around the reliability of Waste Management's collection schedule.

"We have had problems with Waste Management trash pickup ever since they began picking up our trash -- we do not know what holidays they observe, they come a day later because of problems on their end, they do not come at all because they have breakdowns, they do not come when the weather interferes."

After observing an announcement in the newspaper that, due to Presidents' Day, trash collection would be delayed by one day, Funkhouser said he did not set his trash out that holiday. But according to him, the service came that day anyway despite the announcement.

Scheduling issues as well as issues with finding emptied trash containers in ditches and in roadways have incensed Funkhouser and many of this neighbors, he said.

"We have a problem with Waste Management," he said. "Raising my fee $60 and my neighbors' fee $60 ain't gonna fix it. Let's fix the problem first and then talk about some more money."

Waste Management's permitted materials for recycling collection will include:

• Newsprint, junk mail, brown paper, white paper, magazines, soft cover books, phone books

• Empty aluminum cans, aluminum foil and cleaned pie tins

• High-density polyethylene plastic jugs, e.g. emptied milk and bottled water jugs

• Polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles numbered 1 - 7, e.g. emptied bottles with an opening smaller than base of container

• Emptied steel cans

• Corrugated cardboard, paperboard, chip board, e.g. cereal boxes, shoe boxes, etc.

• Empty aerosol cans

• Aseptic packaging, e.g. milk cartons, juice cartons, juice boxes (without straws)

• Rigid plastics, e.g. plastic tubs and buckets, plastic toys, hangers, nursery pots, laundry baskets

• Household metals, e.g. old metal pots, pans and cookware.

No glass will be collected, and any recyclable materials that has been in contact with food debris, like pizza boxes, or any other contaminated material will also not be collectible. Recycling collection will occur every other week, while trash collection will remain weekly.

Metro on 03/29/2017

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