Published: January 18, 2008 11:30 pm            

Tribune-Star Editorial: City should re-evaluate trash/recycling contract

Modern Terre Haute history is — you’ll excuse the term — littered with failed attempts at curbside recycling. While communities all around us have instituted efficient, eco-friendly programs, ours has debated, stumbled and continued to send staggering amounts of trash into ever-expanding landfills.

A new contract with Republic Services, Inc., for all the city’s trash removal could spell the beginning of an era of recycling success.

Or not.

Negotiated and signed during the last days of the Kevin Burke administration, the trash contract is huge and riddled with possibilities, both good and bad. Its length, alone — 20 years — is enough to keep environmentalists and fiscal conservatives awake at night.

Along with conversion to mandatory 96-gallon trash receptacles that will be provided by Republic to every city household, the contract calls for voluntary curbside recycling for a fee.

A 65-gallon lidded cart will cost $5.50 per month for bi-weekly pick up with incremental increases as the years go by. A minimum of 500 households must subscribe to the recycling service within the first six months it is in operation or the program will be scuttled.

The city’s chief negotiator for the contract, Jeff Perry of the Board of Public Works and Safety, says this is a good deal. So does Republic executive Ken Depasse.

Maybe it is, but we are not so certain. Like the new mayor, we haven’t had much time to digest the 21-page document. Equally as important, we haven’t been able to compare Terre Haute’s waste hauling and recycling set-up with contracts in other places.

A cursory check raises more questions than answers. How can Sullivan, Vincennes, Jasper and Bloomington manage free curbside recycling, but Terre Haute can’t? What about other Indiana cities with much shorter Republic contracts that get comparable trash hauling and curbside recycling for less money?

Where is the incentive in this 20-year deal for citizens to alter their mindset about waste in general? If it continues to cost extra to recycle paper, cardboard, plastic and cans, but it’s free to keep throwing all those items into a 96-gallon trash bin, how many folks will see the wisdom in changing their wasteful habits?

Admirably, Republic has pledged to partner with Goodwill Industries for sorting recyclables. But can nothing be done about glass items, which Goodwill won’t take?

The trash contract is one of hundreds of projects and pacts Duke Bennett inherited with the keys to the mayor’s office. According to Perry and Depasse, while aspects of the contract can be amended, the only way to nullify this deal is by mutual agreement or by one party heading to court.

As many reservations as we have about the city being locked into a two-decade deal, we shudder at the prospect of a protracted legal wrangle that could interfere with the much-needed uniform trash bin conversion and delay curbside recycling for another long stretch of precious time.

A short stretch, however, is not a bad idea.

Mayor Bennett and his staff — still with many positions unfilled — are inundated with learning about the business of managing Terre Haute. Everything and everyone is in need of attention. Without allowing trash and recycling to disappear into the crowd, we urge the mayor to put on whatever brakes he can with the Republic contract.

In response to a request by city council members Todd Nation and Neil Garrison, the Board of Public Works has scheduled an informational public meeting about the trash contract for Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. in the first-floor court room at City Hall. Between now and then, Bennett should ask every affected department head to vet the contract. He should assign someone to call other cities to learn about their various trash and recycling programs.

Easier yet, Bennett could just tap into volumes of research done by local, pro-recycling organizations and individuals. Many of these folks have up-to-date information about other communities’ services.

If recycling is going to work this time in Terre Haute, more citizens than not must be convinced that the formula for success lies in a 20-year contract with Republic. If it doesn’t lie there, now is an awfully good time to find that out.

        

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