ANNA MARIA – City commissioners unanimously approved Waste Management’s request to make side-door trash and recycling service mandatory for all residential properties effective immediately.
When doing so, on Aug. 14, the commission also approved Waste Management’s request to switch its current trash and recycling collection days from Mondays and Thursdays to Tuesdays and Fridays beginning in early October. Waste Management will then divide its weekly recycling collections between Tuesday and Fridays and landscaping debris collections will continue on Mondays. As an additional concession provided to the city, Waste Management is already emptying several beach access dumpsters every Saturday at no additional cost to the city.
The commission-approved changes required formal amendments to be made to the franchise agreement the city has with Waste Management. Entered into around 2019, the current agreement expires next June. Before that expiration date, the city will seek new proposals from Waste Management and other companies interested in providing those exclusive services in which the city shares a small percentage of the revenues.
Side-door service
Ideally, side-door service entails Waste Management employees retrieving trash and recycling containers from the side of a residential property, emptying the containers and returning them to the side of the house after they’ve been emptied.
Before the franchise agreement was amended last week, the agreement required all non-homesteaded residential properties (including short-term vacation rentals) to use side-door service at an additional monthly cost.
The owners of homesteaded residential properties were not required to use side-door trash and recycling service.
Despite the city’s side-door service requirement set forth in the franchise agreement and the additional costs incurred by non-homesteaded property owners, Waste Management employees frequently left the emptied trash and recycling containers out by the street rather than returning them to the side of the house. This resulted in complaints frequently expressed by the current mayor and commission, the previous mayor and commissioners and many residents.
In an effort to resolve those concerns and complaints, it’s hoped that requiring side-door trash and recycling service for all residential properties will eliminate the confusion as to who’s supposed to receive side-door service and who isn’t.
Regarding trash and recycling containers still brought to the street by unknowing vacation rental guests or property owners, Waste Management District Manager Chris Sawallich said, “If they are out at the curb, we’re going to take them back to the house.”
Sawallich said Waste Management’s public outreach team will provide impacted residents and property owners with more information about the changes taking place now and in October.
During the pilot program now in effect and continuing until the current agreement expires next June, non-homesteaded property owners and others who’ve been paying extra for side-door service will no longer be charged that additional fee. Homesteaded property owners who didn’t desire or require side-door service won’t be charged extra for the mandatory service that no longer requires them to bring their trash and recycling containers out to the street and retrieve them after they’ve been emptied.
During a previous meeting in July, Waste Management Government Affairs Manager Brenna Haggar said that residential rates might be “recalculated” if Waste Management enters into a new franchise agreement with the city next summer.
