The Mount Vernon City Council adopted during its April 13 meeting amendments to the city’s codified ordinances to make it clear that garbage haulers must pick up recycling at the same frequency as they do trash service
The change clarifies previous language and aims to ensure that residents receive consistent recycling services. The council said this amendment addresses confusion among waste haulers about how often they are required to collect recyclables compared to regular trash.
“The legislation we’ve drafted here makes it clear that recycling is picked up on the same schedule that you pick up trash. It’s real simple. If you get weekly trash service, you have to have weekly recycling. If you have bi weekly, it’s bi weekly or monthly. It’s monthly,” Law Director Rob Broeren said, “just so that we’re not imposing some sort of extra mandate on those companies that pick up trash less than weekly,” according to a video recording of the meeting.
Broeren also said as the city inspector took over issuing licenses for trash hauling companies in the city, one of the continual problems has been recycling pickup. The original legislation buried the required frequency of recycling pickup in the definition section instead of the operator sections. Another issue was that some companies don’t pick up weekly, instead making bi-weekly or monthly trash pickups. But the way the original ordinance read, they would still have been required to make weekly pickups of recycling. He said the amendment fixes and clarifies the issue, according to a video recording of the meeting.
According to a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRJo16Hpzuk”>video recording, Safety Service Director Tanner Salyers told council members he contacted every hauler operating within Mount Vernon and held a meeting with them. Salyers described parts of this meeting as contentious but said they worked through all issues. He explained that when asked by a hauler how often recycling needed to be offered, it became clear there was confusion due to unclear written requirements. Salyers discussed this with Broeren and ensured amendments clarified that haulers must provide recycling as often as they do trash collection.
Council member Dale Miller attended the meeting with waste haulers and said he was left with the impression that some smaller companies may have tried to skirt rules for competitive reasons. Miller told them his responsibility is looking out for Mount Vernon residents’ best interests and not their businesses’ competitiveness. He added that future discussions might consider moving toward a single source for waste hauling in Mount Vernon, possibly with branded trucks, according to a video recording.
