Election aside, this Indian River issue will spark lots of trash talk and controversy

There’s going to be a lot of trash talking in Indian River County the next year or two.

Some of it may downright stink, depending on your point of view.

I’m not talking about the 2024 election, which could get ugly enough.

Between March and July 2024, county commissioners will consider what kind of garbage service residents of the unincorporated county, and perhaps Fellsmere and Indian River Shores, will have starting in October 2025.

Why the long lead time?

Depending on which trash hauler gets the county’s business, it’ll have to procure equipment to hit the ground running that October day.

Garbage collection a thorny issue on Treasure Coast

In the news: Indian River hopes to avoid another garbage debacle; search for 2025 hauler to begin soon

In the news: Rates to jump nearly 50%, pickups to be cut in half under new Port St. Lucie trash contract

In the news: Sebastian facing nearly 200% hike for trash collection; what do residents think?

Remember when? Indian River County recycling, garbage changes frustrating

More: Indian River County sifting through recycling bins: How you can steer clear of trouble

Officials want to avoid the kind of, in hindsight, relatively minor issues Waste Management had in October 2015 when it had challenges distributing trash and recycling bins that could be lifted mechanically from our driveways and dumped into trucks. It was a big issue at the time.

Our family has been happy with weekly service and rates ($10.44 a month) Waste Management has offered the past eight years. But its contract, which Fellsmere also has, will be up and the county is planning way ahead to determine what to do.

Wisely, because garbage has been a controversial issue elsewhere lately, especially when cities got caught reacting.

In May 2022, Port St. Lucie replaced (after suing) its hauler, Waste Pro, for failing repeatedly to pick up residents’ trash. The result: Residents saw rates double to $35.28 monthly and had their service cut from twice to once a week with new hauler FCC Environmental Services Florida.

In Sebastian, city residents earlier this year were shocked to get new Waste Management bills of $19.45 a month, up from $14.42, TCPalm reported. Under a new contract, pickup was cut from twice weekly to weekly and, for the first time, mandated for all city residents.

A majority of City Council, after a long debate in March, figured that was better than keeping the status quo and having subscribers’ rates go from $14.42 to $42 monthly.

Be like Vero Beach and start your own trash operation?

But that’s what happens when you start your process late, your contract expires July 1, and you get only one bidder. That fact was not lost on Councilman Bob McPartlan, who questioned how former City Manager Paul Carlisle handled the garbage issue.

Given the massive rate increase or mandate, which hurts, for example, seniors on fixed incomes who generate relatively little waste, McPartlan asked city officials to look at other alternatives.

Among them: Could Sebastian, like Vero Beach, Stuart and Fort Pierce, collect the trash at a lower cost? In fiscal 2023, Vero Beach’s longtime solid waste operation was expected to contribute nearly $200,000 to its general fund while reserving almost $450,000 for major purchases, such as trucks.

Given that it is planning so far ahead, should Indian River County, much more spread out than Sebastian, look into operating its own solid waste authority?

Himanshu Mehta, managing director of the Indian River County Solid Waste Disposal District, said it’s not that simple.

Is mandatory collection a better way to go?

“I don’t see staff supporting a decision like that,” Mehta told me, saying years ago the county began privatizing various waste operations for efficiencies. Plus, the cost of borrowing money to buy trucks and other equipment, then pledging future revenues to pay for them, would be huge, and risky. “It’d be monumental.”

Perhaps not quite as monumental as persuading residents mandatory garbage collection is the best way to handle things, starting in 2025. Such an option has been discussed for at least four decades. At a recent meeting, county commissioners didn't all seem to agree it was the right thing to do.

In 2010, then-Commissioner Gary Wheeler succinctly made his pitch.

"Overall, it's a good thing for the county, especially if there's no more incentive to dump garbage on vacant lots, fields and along the roads," he said, supporting Mehta’s pitch universal collection would lower the per-resident cost of collection.

Nowadays, Mehta has another argument: Now that everyone ― subscriber or not ― has a blue recycling bin, some use it as a garbage can. Sadly, trash often gets mixed in with recycling, contaminating loads, costing the county money and letting some people dump their trash illegally for free.

Not everyone’s onboard. Although the Sebastian City Council, facing dramatic price increases, went along with mandatory collection this year, residents in a 2003 referendum rejected the idea. Sebastian council OK'd it as a last resort.

In a recent survey of Fellsmere residents, about half supported mandatory collection, City Manager Mark Mathes told radio host Bob Soos.

Not just kicking the can to the curb

In 2010, resident Bob Adair summed up his opposition:

"In the rural areas, hauling a container to the curb is not just walking it from the backyard to the front yard," he said. "We make a quarter-mile trip up the driveway."

Is trash pickup an essential function of government? How does it compare to water and sewer, fire-rescue, law enforcement, telephone, internet and landfill operation? Should one or more be operated privately or franchised out by the government? Should trash pickup be mandated inside urban areas only?

Let the debate begin.

This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.

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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Election aside, trash talk figures to be hot topic in Indian River