Rise in prices

You may soon pay slightly more for garbage/recycling removal in Creston.

Why?

Prairie Solid Waste Agency — who accepts all of Union County’s trash/recyclables — is increasing their tipping fees, single stream recycling and per capita costs for current and future customers effective Jan. 1, 2015.

Amy Schultes with Prairie Solid Waste explained during a Nov. 4 Creston City Council meeting the increases are necessary because the agency is currently losing an average $20,000 per month.

“The market for recyclables is volatile,” Schultes said. “Recycling is the main area we are losing money, but fuel costs and labor costs have also increased. We have not had any increases for a number of years. It has got the point we have to.”

The increases include: Tipping fees from $60 to $65 per ton, single-stream recycling will be $25 per ton and an extra $1.20 per capita for each entity.

The council accepted these increases Tuesday evening after nearly 30 minutes of discussion and a 4-3 roll call vote.

Recycling problems

The city of Creston currently has a per capita rate of $5, which — as mentioned by Schultes — has not been raised by Prairie Solid Waste Agency since 2006. The agency uses this per capita funding to provide both handling of household hazardous waste and recycling.

However, many of the council members felt the per capita increase of $1.20 was directly related to the large losses the agency is seeing in recycling handling — a service not significantly used by Creston patrons because there are only two recycling bins in city limits.

Those two green recycling bins are located at Fareway and the former City Carton building on Highway 34.

“They are dumped about twice per week,” said Mike Taylor, Creston’s city administrator.

However, city council members had few options other than to accept the increases because Iowa Code requires all cities to provide recycling in some capacity.

The only other options were to refuse to pay these increases or disband from the 28E agreement — which includes Afton, Shannon City, Thayer, Arispe, Creston, Cromwell and Macksburg — with Prairie Solid Waste and search for other recycling providers.

“Disbanding was never seriously discussed,” Taylor said.

City council members voting in favor of accepting the increases Tuesday were Ann Levine, Randy White, Marsha Wilson and Nancy Loudon. Against were Gary Lybarger, Dave Koets and Rich Madison.

Another increase

Prairie Solid Waste Agency’s increased tipping fee — a charge levied upon a given quantity of waste received — will also cost Waste Management more to dump the city’s trash there. Taylor estimates Waste Management to pass that cost onto the city at somewhere around 37 cents per customer, per month.

Taylor said — all total — these increases could cause the cost for each Creston garbage/recycling customer to go up between $4 to $6 per year.

He added, in year’s past, the city has absorbed these increases. Will they again?

“That will be a council decision made at a later date,” Taylor said.

Taylor did mention the city’s contract with Waste Management expires about 18 months from now. Preliminary discussions/negotiation with them will begin in about six months and he and the council are hoping to negotiate a lower rate with them or another provider and possibly add single-stream (curbside) recycling.