Mayfield Village Trash Deal Delayed By Uncertainty

canceled its old rubbish contract, but officials haven't decided what to do about a new deal.

The easy part was deciding to forego the last two years of a deal with J&J Refuse, which now goes by the name of Kimble. The village would have spent $464,840 and will save about $85,000 over that two-year period by signing a new contract with Kimble, the low bidder for rubbish services this time around.

But council members aren't sure whether to go with the same level of service or switch to 64-gallon carts for recycling instead of the current 18-gallon bins. The village already uses 96-gallon carts for rubbish.

"I think we're going to have complaints about double bins," Councilman William Marquardt said at Monday's council meeting. "We've already had complaints about people not being able to keep them in their garage."

Compounding that problem is a village requirement that garbage cans be kept out of sight from the street. "They're going to have to have them outside," Marquardt said.

The switch would cost about $15,000 more over the five-year deal – $994,081 compared to $979,446. But the larger containers also are expected to encourage more recycling, which could result in lower costs in the future because bids are based on tonnage sent to landfills.

"They doubled (the amount of recycling) in Orange Village when they went to the cart," Service Director Douglas Metzung said.

Part of the advantage is that cardboard, magazines and newspapers can be mixed together in the carts with cans and bottles, whereas residents have had to bundle those materials separately for recycling. One downside, however, is that only materials in the recycling carts will be recycled – the 18-gallon bins could no longer be used because of the automated process for picking up the carts.

With rubbish, residents would still have the option of using just bags or bags in addition to the carts – the contract still calls for unlimited trash collection.

Councilman Thomas Marrie said he didn't think he could fit both carts in his garage, but the decision shouldn't be based solely on personal experience.

"I think we have to do probably what's best for most folks," he said.