Longboat Key's recycling rates going up in August

Town commissioners have given their initial approval to a three-year contract renewal with Waste Management Inc. for recycling and trash collection with a phased-in $1 increase for most customers by 2024.

A final vote is scheduled on July 2. 

“During negotiations, there was an effort to make sure that the recycling rate increase did not go into effect immediately,” Town Manager Tom 77Harmer said. “We wanted at least a 30-day period before that went into effect to try an opportunity for notifying the public.”

In the next three years, Waste Management is requesting a $1.03 rate increase to the single-family residential and multi-family commercial monthly recycling rates.

Public Works Director Isaac Brownman said the town negotiated with Waste Management for months.

Brownman said the town received documentation from Waste Management indicating changes in the law that make it more expensive to recycle throughout the country.

“Primarily, the changes in law occurred in the People’s Republic of China, which was the greatest buyer of recycled goods,” Brownman said.

In May, Waste Management Government Affairs Manager Bill Gresham wrote Brownman a letter about the impacts.

“The biggest impact of this standard was that it established a new quality specification of 0.3% contamination by weight for any imported wastepaper,” Gresham wrote. “The prior standard had been 10% contamination.”

Brownman said the town would work with Waste Management to educate the public.

“If a community wants a recycling program to work, you really have got to reduce the contamination,” Brownman said.

Plus, a Florida law passed in 2020 also requires that new contracts have some language added that requires waste collectors to “make the best efforts possible to reduce recyclable contamination.”

Longboat Key’s new recycling rates would start in August. 

“Everything else in the 2014 contract would remain in effect,” Browman said.

The six-year deal made in 2014 has two optional renewal terms of three years each.

In November 2014, the company transitioned to single-stream recycling from its dual-stream system. Waste Management replaced the red and blue bins with 65-gallon wheeled carts. The single-stream method allows customers to place all recycling items in one cart, eliminating the need for sorting materials.

Brownman said the town is satisfied with Waste Management’s service.

Residents gave a 93% satisfaction rating for solid waste services in the 2021 citizen survey. Waste Management makes its collections on Mondays and Thursdays in Longboat Key.

Brownman acknowledged there are competitors to Waste Management.

“In any industry, there are competitors, but you have to weigh the competence and quality of those competitors against what we have,” Brownman said. “When I say we’re very satisfied with Waste Management, we’ve talked to others who are not so satisfied with others.”