The City of Carmel continues its collaboration with Republic Services with a seven-year residential trash and recycling contract under a new ordinance approved by the City Council on Dec. 18, 2023.
The new contract with Republic Services, which has served Carmel for many years, covers all residents and began on Jan. 1, 2024. By entering into an exclusive agreement, the city was able to receive a better price for taxpayers.
Finkam
“Overall, the program has accomplished the goal of good consistent service at the best price for all residents,” Mayor Sue Finkam said. “Republic Services has long been a good partner with Carmel Utilities and I’m confident that will continue.”
Rates will increase slightly from $13.31 to $14.70 per residential customer in 2024. The rate will gradually rise to $19.07 over the next six years under the terms of the contract. The city sought bids on this service from qualified providers and Republic Services was the low bidder by more than 13 percent.
Under the terms of the contract, city residents’ trash and recycling service dates remains unchanged, as well as current programs including weekly recycling, landscape waste removal, special needs services, holiday tree pick up and bulk item services.
For more details about the City’s residential trash & recycling program, log on to CarmelUtilities.com.
Background
The city’s Residential Trash and Recycling program started in 2012. Prior to 2012, individual homeowners, or in some cases HOAs, were on their own to obtain trash service. This resulted in a wide range of prices with many residents paying 50 to 100 percent more per month than what they are paying today with the city’s program. In addition, it was commonplace to have two different trash providers picking up trash on the same street on the same day.
In 2011, an ordinance was passed that created the City-Wide Program. Carmel Utilities was given the responsibility of including the cost for trash on the monthly utility bill, collecting the money for the bill, and transferring it to the trash provider each month. The Ordinance did allow the Utility to add 0.25 cents per bill to help cover billing and administrative costs. The primary goal of creating the program was to acquire one qualified provider and take advantage of the economies of scale to get the best price.
With all due respect to whomever wrote this story (or the press release it was taken from) a 10% increase monthly (from 13.31 to $14.70) is not a “slight” increase; nor is an overall increase of 43% over the life of the contract. Then, couple that with the 35% increase in water and 20% increase in sewer passed at the same meeting. And I’m not certain where the $.25 add on for billing came from, but I pay $.95 for the combined water/sewer/trash/”rainwater” bill. Finally, by ordinance, these all raise 3% per year regardless.