City postpones changes in trash pickup

The Charlotte City Council will take more time to decide if trash pickup should be eliminated from apartment buildings, referring the city’s solid waste services ordinance to a committee for at least a six-month review.

Council members on Monday night, without objection, approved Democrat John Autry’s motion to send the ordinance to the environment committee.

“I’d like us to take at least six months to review the current ordinance and our policy, which is 25 years old,” Autry said.

The committee review should examine opportunities to modernize the ordinance and the city’s solid waste services, he said.

The committee also should look at policies of Charlotte’s peer cities “and hopefully be able to glean some of the basis for maybe even writing a completely new solid waste services ordinance,” Autry said.

Councilmember Ed Driggs, a Republican, said with that action, the council has taken the issue of discontinuing service to apartments, townhomes or condominiums out of current budget discussions.

“There will be more time for the community to engage on that subject as we look for a comprehensive solution on solid waste,” Driggs said.

City officials have considered eliminating garbage collection for 103,000 apartment units because, they say, the waste is collected without recovering the full cost, which makes Charlotte unique among comparable cities.

The city’s solid waste services are broken down into multifamily residential, which includes townhomes and condominiums, and commercial multifamily, which includes apartment buildings.

No change has been planned in service to condos and townhomes, according to Assistant City Manager Hyong Yi.

The city charges single-family homes $25 annually for trash collection. Apartment complexes pay $25 for each unit, but that doesn’t cover the full cost, Yi said.

Policy options under consideration include continuing service to apartments under the city’s current model or treating the units as commercial operations and charging more, Yi said.

Another option would be to discontinue trash pickup to apartments in July 2017, the start of a new fiscal year, Yi said.

Ken Szymanski, executive director of the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association, has said the proposed change for apartments “takes a discriminatory slant” and would be unfair.