TRASH SERVICE MAY COST MORE

Extra bags may cost extra bucks this summer for Cape Girardeau trash customers.

Residents currently pay $12.13 per month for trash pickup, which covers three bags or three 32-gallon containers. Additional bags are available at the Public Works Department for $2 each.

Cape City Council members considered an alternative Friday, a plan to cut solid waste volume and encourage recycling. The councilmen were on a day-long retreat at Black Forest, a meeting facility in rural Cape County.

Public Works Director Doug Leslie said volume-based pricing for solid waste met with great success in Bettendorf, Iowa, where the system is required by state law. Solid Waste Coordinator Pam Sander recently visited the city to learn how officials implemented its solid-waste program.

In Cape Girardeau, there are 13,000 residential trash accounts. About 25 percent of customers recycle, but the number rises to 42 percent in some neighborhoods. Volume-based pricing may encourage more.

"They would have the power, through recycling and precycling -- buying containers that don't have to be thrown away -- to control their cost," Leslie said.

Under a new system proposed for Cape Girardeau, residents would be allowed only two trash bags or containers for the $12.13 monthly fee. Stickers for additional containers would be available at the Department of Public Works and various businesses for $1 each.

Volume-based pricing has benefits other than increased recycling, Leslie said. Under Senate Bill 530, solid waste in Missouri must be decreased by 40 percent by 1998, a decrease encouraged by higher disposal costs.

And the proposed system seems more equitable. A single person, who likely doesn't generate three bags of trash a week, wouldn't pay as much for pickup as a large family.

But there are concerns, Leslie said. Forcing people to pay for more trash may increase illegal dumping. People may dump their trash along the road or put it in commercial trash containers.

"If you implement this program, be prepared to intensify nuisance abatement law enforcement," Leslie said. "This year's budget includes that.

"If you get someone dumping on the side of the road, you may be able to identify them through something left in the trash. It's more difficult to tell when someone puts trash in someone else's commercial container."

Also, recycling isn't a money-making venture. It actually costs the city more to handle increased loads of recyclables.

July 1 is the deadline for councilmen to make a decision on volume-based pricing, but Leslie wants them to discuss it at the meeting scheduled May 6. Early passage would allow public education.

The City Council didn't indicate Friday whether they wanted to pass a volume-based pricing measure. Councilman James Williamson Jr. said he supported it.

"The education needs to be out that if people recycle, it will help them on regular trash days," he said. "And I have a wife and two boys at home. We make more trash than a couple with no children across the street, so we should pay more."