Savannah Council Delays Recycling Contract

City Manager Michael Brown has less than six months to meet the deadline the Mayor set for a new curbside recycling program. "We've got all of our equipment ordered and we've got our process set up," he says, "now we have our processor."

This week leaders were supposed to vote on a company to take and process the paper, plastic, aluminum, glass and other recyclables from your trash. Depending on who they pick, the city could get up to $346,451 annually for the stuff we currently throw away but that doesn't mean they are making money on the program. Brown explains, "The only way I think you could say you really make money is if the money for these materials pays for the full cost of the system. We're not going to achieve that."

In fact, the total cost of the curbside program, $1.2 million, is four times higher than what the recycling will bring in. That means Savannah neighbors will pick up the difference. We're going to have to have a dollar per household per month on your bill. That extra buck will bring in $576,000 but the program will still need an additional $327,924 per year. That will come from property taxes and other revenue that is currently slated for the city's General Fund.

The actual cost to neighbors could be higher or lower depending on which company leaders pick to do the job. The contract proposed by Brown is a 20 year deal that will mean a new company comes to town and builds a recycling facility.

Today leaders questioned the length of that proposed contract and wondered aloud that the recycling program might not work or that future councils might choose to discontinue it.

City staff says the contract they negotiated only obligates the recycler to pay the city per ton delivered. They say the city could in effect stop bringing recyclables and not face any contractual penalty.

Council still put the contract on hold for two weeks for further scrutiny. Both of the other bids currently on the table would mean a higher price for residents for recycling.

Savannah's environment will also pay a price; Brown admits the new curbside recycling program will increase the city's carbon footprint. Where before you had one sanitation truck come to your house to pick up everything, you now have two trucks every time, one for trash and one for sticks, twigs, grass clippings and other yard waste.

Soon you will have a third truck making the same trip to pick up recyclables. Three trucks mean three times the emissions and a three times bigger carbon footprint for Savannah Sanitation.