The city's trash board is suspending the pay-as-you-throw fee it charges for yard-waste collection, calling it a good-faith effort to mend fences after the revelation that yard waste is being burned like regular garbage.
"I think it goes a long way to help trying to build trust back to the public out there," said City Councilor David Patrick, a member of the trash board.
The board, formally known as the Tulsa Authority for the Recovery of Energy, voted unanimously Tuesday to waive the requirement for trash customers to affix 50-cent "green waste" stickers on bags of yard waste that cannot fit in their regular trash carts.
The sticker requirement will be lifted through at least January, although board members indicated that they might consider extending the waiver if they have not decided how to reform the yard-waste program by then.
"The program is not being implemented as we have advertised it, so I think that what would be best for us is to suspend the (fee) program," Chairman Randy Sullivan said.
It should continue "until we decide from a policy (standpoint) what we're going to do and let the citizens know what we're going to do," he added.
The Tulsa World reported this month that yard waste picked up at residents' curbs has been taken to the city's trash incinerator almost since the beginning of the new trash program Oct. 1 because equipment at its mulching plant could not remove the plastic bags in which residents are asked to place the material.
The city, meanwhile, had continued requiring residents to use the green-waste stickers and still includes a monthly fee in every trash customer's bill.
Trash board members have since pledged to reform the yard-waste program and are considering a number of options, including offering residents "green waste" carts to allow mulching or having regular trash crews collect yard waste and take it to the incinerator.
But because city crews haul yard waste independently from the trash board's contracted garbage and recycling hauler, involving the private hauler almost certainly would require changing its contract, board members say.
That could force the board to re-bid all aspects of the trash program that began Oct. 1 or risk lawsuits from other trash haulers, who could argue that they were not allowed to bid on yard-waste pickup.
Board members voted Tuesday to seek a private legal firm to work them through such dilemmas.
In the meantime, they said their temporary fix is to suspend the use of green-waste stickers and continue using city crews to haul yard waste to the trash incinerator.
They said trash customers will still have to place yard waste in clear bags or bundles so that city crews know what to collect - and so NeWSolutions crews don't mistake bags of yard waste for bags of extra garbage, which are not collected without an orange "extra refuse" sticker.
Customers, however, can place as much yard waste in their trash carts as can fit.
"I know it's very confusing, but we have to understand the contractual (restraints) here," Sullivan said. "We'd like to change this, but sometimes the contract won't let us."
Trash customers should keep their green-waste stickers, as the trash board might eventually issue refunds or allow them to be used as extra refuse stickers, board members said.
For now, customers are still charged a 70-cent monthly green-waste fee in their regular trash bills.
Officials previously said customers were paying $1.09 a month for green waste, but they have since clarified that the larger figure represents the cost of the service per customer.
"Hopefully, we can have a solution by the end of January where we can say, 'We don't have a problem. We got it fixed, and this is the direction that we're going,' " Patrick said.
New yard-waste policy*
- Can be placed in trash carts
- Excess must be placed in clear bags or bundles
- No sticker required
- Regular garbage, recycling unaffected
*Through at least Jan. 31
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Board revises waste plan
Follow the green-waste issue
Read previous stories about the city's trash system, including the ailing green-waste program.
Trash
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