Get ready to pay more for trash pickup in Peachtree City

Tue, 06/30/2009 - 3:59pm
By: John Munford

If you live in Peachtree City, get ready to pay more to get your trash picked up, courtesy of the City Council and Keep Peachtree City Beautiful.

Peachtree City is going to be assessing “franchise fees” on every trash hauler that operates in the city that will be passed along directly to all trash pickup customers in the city.

The City Council unanimously approved adding a quarterly $1 per customer fee, which is expected to raise $40,000 a year in new revenue. That works out to an additional $4 a year that is expected to be passed on to customers’ bills.

The $40,000 a year raised by the fees will be used to fund the Keep Peachtree City Beautiful program, which is involved in recycling and litter education, litter removal and supervision of community service workers who will clean up and remove litter from the city.

Franchise fees are normally imposed on utilities that have a monopoly, but the city is treating the trash haulers on a non-exclusive agreement.

That agreement, approved April 16, requires all trash haulers to offer single stream (no sorting) curbside recycling as part of their base trash pickup prices. Previously some providers charged extra for customers who wanted single stream curbside recycling pickup.

KPTCB officials want to use the funds to increase recycling and litter education, particularly among younger students, because they are the most likely to adopt recycling at home, said KPTCB representative Al Yougel.

The funds will also be used to increase the number of trash receptacles on the path system, currently totaling 38, and also will pay for community beautification projects.

Part of the funds will also pay for recyclables pickup particularly from the parks and athletic fields, which is more labor intensive, Yougel said.

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Submitted by flip212 on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 6:51am.

Keep finding those ways to raise our taxes ….Another example of Taxation without representation…….is it November yet?

litter education, particularly among younger students...what a joke...here we go again using "the children" as the excuse to raise taxes.... will "litter education" be a SAT requirement Mr. Mayor?

Submitted by justchecking on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 6:29pm.

Can you say "muckraker"?? The headline and lead paragraph make it sound as if we're in for a huge new garbage bill. $4.00 a year!! Gve me a break! I don't like getting nickeled and dimed any more than the next person, but a little honesty and a whole lot less sensationalism from this paper would go a long way toward reducing the constant tempests in tea pots around here.

Submitted by Bonkers on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 6:44pm.

You miss the whole point!
It is a raise in taxes during a recession, soon to be a depression, by holier than thou hypocrites who never raise taxes! Except by devious means.
Why didn't they just ask the trash hauler for a buck donation?

If the trash business wasn't very very profitable there wouldn't be scores of them fighting for the franchise. Mafia still owns some of them!

matt.barnes's picture
Submitted by matt.barnes on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 9:00am.

It's $4.00 per year. So what. I will be more than happy to pay it as long as the money does in fact go towards helping keep the city clean. All the time I see posts from people complaining about litter on the cart path and medians. I think this sounds like a great program to do just that. And it only cost $4 per family per year. Anyone who complains about this is really just complaining for sport.


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