As we review our contract for recycling, I think it’s important to discuss green/compostable waste. I understand the Trans-Jordan Landfill cannot handle the capacity should we offer this through them, so perhaps it’s time to see what other options there are available. I know White City offers green waste- who do they use? I have looked and Sandy is one of the last cities in Salt Lake County not to offer green waste. I have brought this up on several social media outlets, and it seems there is a real interest in offering this service.
We do not fill up our recycle every week. We are a family of two, and I buy in bulk to reduce packaging. Then refill individual containers. No more daily newspaper either. However, Waste Management should make more effort to communicate with its customers. They could provide a quarterly handout that says how much recycling they processed, the cost savings to city, who they sell too and so on. They could add a little humor (or horror) with a picture or description of the crazy things people put in the recycle bins (like plastic tricycles). They could print on the TOP of each bin an image of what is acceptable recycling. They could put a courtesy warning notice on bins with unacceptable recycles in them. This would eventually result in cost savings, without a lot of expense to WM. Alternately Sandy City could have a column in its Journal with some of this information. Make people feel good about recycling, give them an incentive. Have a laugh at what inappropriate things people try to recycle.
I am in favor of changing the recycling collection to every other week. I don't see a benefit to a rate increase. Going to every other week would also reduce garbage truck emissions and make a small improvement to the valley's air quality.
Brian Peters
2432 E Granite Hills Circle, Sandy, 84092
While I don't love tax increases, I do appreciate the weekly Curbside Recycling Collection. An every-other week option would not work for us as we fill our bin every week.
First, this fee only applying to recycle is outrageous. This will only further discourage recycling in a place where recycling is already far less convenient than it could (and arguably should) be. Second, threatening to provide half the service at the same cost is like increasing the service rate by 100%. How does WM justify such an outlandish price hike? Show me the figures. Finally, I can't support this service provider. In spite of several calls and requests to their customer service, they have been overcharging me for a bin I NEVER had for months. The people answering phones here are obnoxiously arrogant, and entirely dishonest. If this company is going to continue to threaten us with cost increases then I suggest finding a new provider.
We recycle a considerable amount of materials weekly and support paying a fair and reasonable fee to do so. If the city's staff have determined that the fee with an increase is comparable to what other local city's in Utah and the intermountain region are paying then it may be reasonable to implement it.
Our bin is at least half full every week and often overflowing these days with the amount of items and associated packing materials delivered to our home. Weekly pick up works for us and oftentimes we could use a larger bin.
One of the questions that I have has to do with Option 2 outlined in the February 1, 2021 Waste Management letter to Sandy City. It stated, "As discussed during the July 2020 meeting with the City Council, WM would assist with marketing and implementing this change including providing 96-gallon containers for residents that make this request." Option 2 would reduce or keep the fee the same as today's with pick up service every two weeks. But the city left off the possibility of increasing the bin size in the resolution for vote. Is that still possible? If so, it may be a reasonable compromise to many people to increase our bin size and reduce the pick up frequency for the same fee.
Please discuss this potential change to Option 2 and indicate if it can be implemented in the resolution.
Also, there are people on the Nextdoor social media app who dispute that the items placed in the recycle bin are in fact recycled. Please continue to provide data from Waste Management describing their work and results. As you know, Google makes many people "experts" in many fields such as recycling on the local and national level.
Thank you for your time and consideration of these comments.
First of all, the "new" green recycle bins are kind of a joke - they are smaller than the previous ones. Our household of 3 people barely make it week to week with our recycling bin now being almost overflowing every Wed. The increase proposed is not substantial, but why pay more for a smaller bin? We won't get 2 bins as we don't want to pay for 2 and we have limited space to store our trash and recycle bins already.
While I never like to see fees increase, I understand that the costs of providing services do go up and - as a result - so do the prices I have to pay. My preference would be to adopt the first option and continue recycling on a weekly basis. Our recycling bin is full most weeks, and we would need to either add a second recycling bin for bi-weekly collection or just throw away recyclable items if the frequency changed. And, deferring action just seems like we will need to address this under higher pressure later in the year.
I support this small increase to maintain weekly recycling. A decrease in frequency would cause confusion as to when recycling would be picked up and result in more going in the landfill.
Our bin is consistently full to overflowing each week! Our goal is to recycle as much as we can! Going to bi-weekly would present a big problem for us. I support Option 1 and the increased charge to $5.99.
Also, it would be so helpful to EDUCATE Sandy City about what and how to recycle - on a regular basis. People don't know what they can recycle, what items can actually damage a load for recycling, and what they can do to truly help our community.
Cutting back recycling to biweekly is definitely NOT going to encourage people to recycle more. I believe it will hurt our recycling program and our earth, by having the effect of increasing our landfills.
70% increase under a halved term during a pandemic without showing us the numbers that necessitate the rate increase? How much of this is actually recycled anyway? You need to provide a lot more data before I would agree to any of this. You are a service that has continued business as usual through the pandemic where other businesses are failing. You do not need more money. Where is this additional money going? Into boardmember salaries. I say no, send it to the dump, thats where they are going to take it anyway. I can take my cans and cardboard to be recyced and make money with little effort. Plastic and everything else goes to the dump anyway. Cancel the whole deal, those of us who truly care about the environment can easily and more effectively get done what needs to get done anyway.
Programs are very valuable to senior citizens.
Keeping green recycle bucket as well as 2x a year curb pick up for the waste is great program.
I support the rate increase.
As we review our contract for recycling, I think it’s important to discuss green/compostable waste. I understand the Trans-Jordan Landfill cannot handle the capacity should we offer this through them, so perhaps it’s time to see what other options there are available. I know White City offers green waste- who do they use? I have looked and Sandy is one of the last cities in Salt Lake County not to offer green waste. I have brought this up on several social media outlets, and it seems there is a real interest in offering this service.
We do not fill up our recycle every week. We are a family of two, and I buy in bulk to reduce packaging. Then refill individual containers. No more daily newspaper either. However, Waste Management should make more effort to communicate with its customers. They could provide a quarterly handout that says how much recycling they processed, the cost savings to city, who they sell too and so on. They could add a little humor (or horror) with a picture or description of the crazy things people put in the recycle bins (like plastic tricycles). They could print on the TOP of each bin an image of what is acceptable recycling. They could put a courtesy warning notice on bins with unacceptable recycles in them. This would eventually result in cost savings, without a lot of expense to WM. Alternately Sandy City could have a column in its Journal with some of this information. Make people feel good about recycling, give them an incentive. Have a laugh at what inappropriate things people try to recycle.
I am in favor of changing the recycling collection to every other week. I don't see a benefit to a rate increase. Going to every other week would also reduce garbage truck emissions and make a small improvement to the valley's air quality.
Brian Peters
2432 E Granite Hills Circle, Sandy, 84092
While I don't love tax increases, I do appreciate the weekly Curbside Recycling Collection. An every-other week option would not work for us as we fill our bin every week.
Already posted, Ron & Deb McCabe every other week works for us, don't want the increases. Wondering what the general concensus is by Sandy city.
First, this fee only applying to recycle is outrageous. This will only further discourage recycling in a place where recycling is already far less convenient than it could (and arguably should) be. Second, threatening to provide half the service at the same cost is like increasing the service rate by 100%. How does WM justify such an outlandish price hike? Show me the figures. Finally, I can't support this service provider. In spite of several calls and requests to their customer service, they have been overcharging me for a bin I NEVER had for months. The people answering phones here are obnoxiously arrogant, and entirely dishonest. If this company is going to continue to threaten us with cost increases then I suggest finding a new provider.
We recycle a considerable amount of materials weekly and support paying a fair and reasonable fee to do so. If the city's staff have determined that the fee with an increase is comparable to what other local city's in Utah and the intermountain region are paying then it may be reasonable to implement it.
Our bin is at least half full every week and often overflowing these days with the amount of items and associated packing materials delivered to our home. Weekly pick up works for us and oftentimes we could use a larger bin.
One of the questions that I have has to do with Option 2 outlined in the February 1, 2021 Waste Management letter to Sandy City. It stated, "As discussed during the July 2020 meeting with the City Council, WM would assist with marketing and implementing this change including providing 96-gallon containers for residents that make this request." Option 2 would reduce or keep the fee the same as today's with pick up service every two weeks. But the city left off the possibility of increasing the bin size in the resolution for vote. Is that still possible? If so, it may be a reasonable compromise to many people to increase our bin size and reduce the pick up frequency for the same fee.
Please discuss this potential change to Option 2 and indicate if it can be implemented in the resolution.
Also, there are people on the Nextdoor social media app who dispute that the items placed in the recycle bin are in fact recycled. Please continue to provide data from Waste Management describing their work and results. As you know, Google makes many people "experts" in many fields such as recycling on the local and national level.
Thank you for your time and consideration of these comments.
First of all, the "new" green recycle bins are kind of a joke - they are smaller than the previous ones. Our household of 3 people barely make it week to week with our recycling bin now being almost overflowing every Wed. The increase proposed is not substantial, but why pay more for a smaller bin? We won't get 2 bins as we don't want to pay for 2 and we have limited space to store our trash and recycle bins already.
We would prefer every other week pickup rather than having a fee imposed on recycling.
While I never like to see fees increase, I understand that the costs of providing services do go up and - as a result - so do the prices I have to pay. My preference would be to adopt the first option and continue recycling on a weekly basis. Our recycling bin is full most weeks, and we would need to either add a second recycling bin for bi-weekly collection or just throw away recyclable items if the frequency changed. And, deferring action just seems like we will need to address this under higher pressure later in the year.
I support this small increase to maintain weekly recycling. A decrease in frequency would cause confusion as to when recycling would be picked up and result in more going in the landfill.
Our bin is consistently full to overflowing each week! Our goal is to recycle as much as we can! Going to bi-weekly would present a big problem for us. I support Option 1 and the increased charge to $5.99.
Also, it would be so helpful to EDUCATE Sandy City about what and how to recycle - on a regular basis. People don't know what they can recycle, what items can actually damage a load for recycling, and what they can do to truly help our community.
Cutting back recycling to biweekly is definitely NOT going to encourage people to recycle more. I believe it will hurt our recycling program and our earth, by having the effect of increasing our landfills.
Thank you for your consideration of my words.
Brenda Porter
Keep recycling accessible and weekly. The cost increase is worth the benefit to the future and our planet
70% increase under a halved term during a pandemic without showing us the numbers that necessitate the rate increase? How much of this is actually recycled anyway? You need to provide a lot more data before I would agree to any of this. You are a service that has continued business as usual through the pandemic where other businesses are failing. You do not need more money. Where is this additional money going? Into boardmember salaries. I say no, send it to the dump, thats where they are going to take it anyway. I can take my cans and cardboard to be recyced and make money with little effort. Plastic and everything else goes to the dump anyway. Cancel the whole deal, those of us who truly care about the environment can easily and more effectively get done what needs to get done anyway.
Oppose!