Talking Trash in La Grange: Village to Keep Sticker System

La Grange residents were talking a lot of trash at Monday night's Village Board meeting. Well, maybe talking about trash is a better way to put it.

On Monday night, trustees unanimously approved a five-year contract with Allied Waste for the continued hauling of resident's trash. Additionally, trustees said they were pleased that Allied Waste would continue to offer a volume-based system for hauling waste that will be paid for with trash stickers.

Trustees said they were pleasantly surprised that they were able to continue with a volume-based system, which was favored by residents in a village survey, Trustee Bill Holder told the board.

Trustees were told that La Grange would likely need to abandon its volume-based system in favor of a toter system at a Village Board meeting in September last year. In that meeting, on the options that La Grange could take for hauling its waste. On the advice of the West Central Municipal Conference—a council of governments serving communities in Cook County's western suburbs—the EQCC told trustees the village would have a difficult time finding a waste hauler that would agree to a contract that included a volume-based system.

Trustees wondered why they got that advice on Monday night, after staff was able to solicit several bids for the contract to haul La Grange's trash that included a volume-based program.

Residents have been strongly in favor of keeping the Village's volume-based system. In a village survey, 75 percent of respondents voted to keep the current system. Residents who spoke at Monday night's meeting favored the volume-based system as well. Their concerns with a toter system included that it would do little to encourage residents to cut back on their trash output. Residents also worried that the toter system would charge a resident whether they put out trash or not. The current volume-based system, however, would charge residents who created more waste more money, and those who put out little waste, less, based on their usage.

The Village's new contract with Allied Waste will keep the price of stickers the same for the first year of the program at $4.20. The cost of stickers will increase incrementally to $5 by the fifth year of the program.

Toters will be available to residents who would prefer to be charged monthly, with two options available. Residents who pick the toter program can choose between a 95-gallon and a 65-gallon toter for trash, with both options including a 65-gallon toter for recycling. A 65-gallon trash toter would cost residents $18.25 per month (about equal to purchasing one sticker a week), while the 95-gallon option would cost $25.25 a month for this year.

La Grange staff believes the toter program will be popular with residents who are heavy recyclers, according to village documents. The 65-gallon recycling toter that comes with either trash toter option is equivalent to 4.5 recycling bins. Those who stick with the volume-based program may be getting new bins as well that are larger, but the program is still being evaluated and would be rolled out over time.

Additional benefits, which staff attributed to the competitiveness of the bids it received for the contract, include a continuation of the Spring Clean-up Program (which will cost 3 stickers to participate) and free service at special events.

Allied Waste was not the cheapest bid submitted to the village, staff said in a memo to trustees. One contractor's bid was for slightly less than Allied Waste for a volume-based program. Staff said concerns about the contractor's limited experience with contracts of this nature and more than 20 years of positive experiences with Allied Waste/BFI led them to recommend sticking with Allied Waste.