Dallas Defends its Waste Flow Law in Court Filing

The city of Dallas does not believe its proposed waste flow control law violates any franchisee rights to choose where their waste and recycling goes, according to a city filing in U.S. District Court.

“In terms of explicit language, the franchise agreement does not grant any absolute right for the franchisee to select that location,” the city said in the court paper defending its law and seeking a denial of the plaintiffs’ request. The National Solid Wastes Management Association and other parties are seeking a preliminary injunction against the law.

A hearing is set for Jan. 12.

In response to the plaintiffs’ charge that the only goal of the ordinance is to generate revenue for the city, Dallas claimed in the filing, “The city, first and foremost,

may identify a legitimate public purpose without any need to ask what the actual motivation was behind the ordinance.”

Dallas said it is aiming to make landfills obsolete. “The city’s regulatory scheme, at issue in this lawsuit, is necessary for the city to implement green technology and to promote the most efficient use of city resources. … With the growing use of recycling, and fluctuations in the volume of waste, the city cannot implement these crucial new initiatives without confidence that its waste flow will continue at sufficiently high levels to support the new technology.”