San Angelo, Texas, Republic Services Dispute Curbside Recycling Terms

The city of San Angelo, Texas, is expected to hold a series of public forums after a request from Republic Services to either eliminate or modify the city’s curbside recycling program.

Republic Services seeks to renegotiate the terms of a recycling agreement with the city. That agreement ended in August. According to a San Angelo Live report, every day that the city delays answering the hauler’s request, Republic Services loses around $2,000.

During one of the public forums, the city’s director of operations pointed out that the bottom of the market for recyclables has fallen through the floor and that there is nowhere to take most items traditionally recycled.

San Angelo Live has more details:

SAN ANGELO, TX — Republic Services may hold some of the cards, but not all of them, as the City embarked on a series of public forums as a precursor to answering Republic Services request to eliminate or modify the citywide curbside recycling program.

The forums could be seen as a stall tactic by San Angelo Mayor Brenda Gunter to obtain better negotiating ground for the City. Republic has asked for the contract terms to be renegotiated. Every day the city council delays answering Republic Services’ request to eliminate curbside recycling or approve for a trash price hike to keep it, Republic loses about $2,000.

The contract, ratified by the San Angelo City Council in 2014, contains an agreement for Republic to provide a curbside recycling for all residential trash pickup customers. Republic, separate from the City, made a three-year agreement with a locally owned recycling vendor to sort and sell the usable (or non-contaminated) recyclables. That contract ended in August.

Read the full article here.