As you can expect, with the good there must also come the bad. The main purpose of the ordinance change is to increase the amount Fort Collins residents recycle by increasing the cost of service at each level.
While the city cannot dictate how much haulers charge for each service level, they can control the method of charging. As a result, the ordinance changes include a formula that requires the service fee to increase 100% at each service level. To ensure that we do not price service below cost, we are forced to set the lowest service level at a rate that will allow us to include all costs associated with providing both trash and recycle services. This includes:
- Administrative and operational costs of trash collection
- Administrative and operational costs of recycle collection
- New cost associated with financing, purchase, assembly, delivery of recycle carts (New)
- New cost of purchasing and financing new collection vehicles that are compatible with carts(New)
- Estimate of future fuel cost since haulers can no longer use a fuel surcharge (New)
- Increased hauling license fees and costs associated with new reporting requirements (New)
As you can see, the City Code changes require that all haulers make an immediate and substantial investment in additional equipment and set rates that will account for all added costs. When these cost adjustments are applied to meet the Code formula requirements, the result is in an average increase in service rates of 35% for all customers.
Please understand that these requirements and the related price increase are not the will of Gallegos Sanitation or other area haulers. They are the results of the changes to city code.
Without question, everything has a cost. Even in communities where they the city provides the service, residents are paying one way or another, whether it is through taxes or fees. While these changes will encourage more recycling, the cost of service must increase to accomodate the cost of additional equipment and to meet the formula requirements.
