OFFICIALS READY TO `TALK TRASH' AT MEETING

When officials discuss Cape Girardeau's solid waste program at tonight's city council meeting, they expect criticism from citizens annoyed over a proposed $1.46 a month trash fee hike.

But officials claim no one should be surprised by the hike, foreseen months ago when new solid waste regulations drove up the costs of waste disposal and forced the closure of landfills around the state -- including Cape Girardeau's.

"As Subtitle D regulations were unfolding over the past year, we were faced with the uncertainty of that impact on landfill costs -- the rates we would pay, as well as costs for closure of the city's landfill," said Doug Leslie, assistant city manager and public works director.

"That led us to believe that the expense would be much more than it turned out to be. I guess we were somewhat relieved that the cost was not as significant as we feared."

The proposed fee hike is expected to hold for at least the next 18 months, Leslie said.

He said the city is particularly pleased that many of the "unknowns" related to the new federal and state regulations have been resolved.

"We have a place to take our waste for the next five years at a known rate," Leslie said. "That's the good news."

The bad news, of course, is that waste disposal costs continue to rise.

"It's a heavily regulated and mandated program by the state and federal government," Leslie said.

But Mary Ellen Klein, the city's environmental services coordinator, said it could be worse.

She said a survey conducted this year by the Region R Solid Waste Management District, of which Cape Girardeau is a member, showed many landfills are charging up to $22 per ton in tipping fees.

The city recently ratified a contract with Lemons' Landfill in Dexter with a tipping fee of $13.25 per ton for the first year.

Klein said the city has strived to trim costs as much as possible to hold trash fees constant.

Some of the measures taken to cut costs include:

-- Use of used beverage trucks and donated equipment for recycling collections and processing.

-- Installation of more efficient compaction equipment at the city's transfer station.

-- Trash routes and crew sizes altered for efficiency.

-- Community service and court-assigned workers used at recycling center.

-- Addition of products to the recycling program, including cans and magazines.

-- Reduction from twice annually to a single "clean-up" week program.

-- Altered leaf collection program.

But while costs have been cut, expenses have continued to grow due to mandates and the high cost of the city's recycling program.

"I think we've got a pretty progressive, solid waste management plan," said Klein. "We're trying to beef up our education programs to get more people participating in the recycling program.

"Right now, we're getting about 25 percent participating, which is pretty good. But we've got to do better."

Klein said that even at 100 percent participation, recycling likely would lose money. But every pound of trash that's diverted from the waste stream is a pound of trash that doesn't have to be hauled to a landfill.

"I think you have to look at the big picture," she said. "Worldwide, we're too wasteful."

A look at the cost breakdown for the $12 monthly trash fee shows the high cost of regulation.

Of the fee, $2.24 or 19 percent, is attributed to state required landfill closure and maintenance and the cost to haul trash to another landfill.

Operations at the city's transfer station, which was built to enable the city to compact its trash for hauling, costs residents another $1.20 per month, and the recycling program costs $2.61. Sale of recyclable material returns only 26 cents to solid waste fund coffers.

Residential trash collection -- at $5.31 per month, per customer -- accounts for less than half the total fee.

Of the $1.46 increase, 66 cents will be earmarked for landfill closure costs, 12 cents for increased trash hauling and disposal costs, 7 cents for increased membership dues in the regional solid waste management district, and 61 cents for increased operating costs.

An example of the types of changes that have affected operating costs in the last year is a state-mandated 4-cent per gallon tax on high-sulfur fuel.

"Those types of things are the unknowns that can happen fairly rapidly," said Leslie.

The assistant city manager said he's proud of the city's solid waste division and recycling program, which has been emulated across the state.

"It's being used as a model around the state," Leslie said. "I think that's indicative of how highly regarded our program is in Missouri."

And yet many Cape Girardeau residents question why trash fees continue to increase while other cities in the area offer the service for free.

Leslie said it won't be long before those cities also will be forced to discontinue subsidizing solid waste operations with sales or property tax revenue.

"There's no such thing as free trash service," he said. "It has to be subsidized through some other tax source.

"The trend definitely is toward pay-as-you-go programs," Leslie said. "It's getting tougher and tougher to pay for these programs with property tax money because that's generally fixed, while solid waste disposal costs keep rising."

"Nobody anticipates solid waste costs going down," added Klein. "They can't, with all the new federal mandates that the states have had to pick up.

"There's no doubt it's costly, but it's only going to be more expensive in the future."