Whitefish mulls mandatory curbside recycling

The city of Whitefish plans to get community input as it looks to determine whether it should create a mandatory curbside recycling program, and thus likely do away with its central recycling site.

Public Works Director Craig Workman said there are a number of factors when considering a central site or curbside recycling, but noted the benefits of a curbside recycling program could be worth additional costs and time it would take to establish such a program.

“Creating a mandatory single-stream curbside recycling program would be a new endeavor for the city of Whitefish, and it is going to take considerable planning in order to ensure its success, but I do think it’s worth the extra time and effort to establish the program,” he said. “The implementation of residential curbside recycling is one of the key strategies recommended in the Climate Action Plan.”

Currently, the city has a centralized recycling site at the corner of Columbia Avenue and Railway Street near the train depot. That property has been set aside for affordable housing, thus the city has been looking at creating a new centralized recycling site on city property on Monegan Road.

Following a work session late last year regarding seeking bids for managing a new recycling site, The City Council said it had an interest in exploring curbside recycling collection and asked staff to solicit for bids.

During a recent council meeting options for moving forward were outlined, and the council subsequently directed staff to schedule a public hearing to gauge community input and draft an ordinance requiring mandatory curbside recycling for consideration.

Mayor John Muhlfeld said it's important to engage citizen input regarding the recycling program.

“Where I grew up we probably had mandatory curbside recycling 35 years ago,” he said. “Here we are, situated in the Crown of the Continent, and we pride ourselves on being responsible stewards of our natural resources, it’s an absolute no-brainer that we at least draft an ordinance for mandatory curbside recycling and have a public hearing.”

Muhlfeld said the city’s current recycling site has been a “disaster” when members of the public misuse the site by dumping garbage there, and tying up another location with a central site doesn’t make sense.

The city previously awarded its garbage collection contract to Republic Services, but then advertised separately for recycling services.

For the recycling program, the city received bids from three companies on the program.

Republic Services provided a bid of $8,700 monthly to run the central recycling site, and a bid of $13.49 per customer per month for curbside service.

Evergreen Disposal’s bid was $8,250 monthly for the central site, and $9.75 per month for curbside.

Helena Recycling submitted a bid of $13.49 per month for curbside. It did not submit a bid for managing the central site.

Bids were for operating the program in 2021-22, and then bids increased slightly for providing service in subsequent years through 2024.

Development of the new centralized recycling site is also estimated to cost the city $185,000 above the annual management cost.

Workman said in order to fund the option of the new site, the city would have to use a dedicated property tax mill.

The first year to support the cost of service and construction would need about 6.83 mills to support it. Based upon this a home valued at $400,000 would see an increase of about $37 and a commercial business with a market value of $3.8 million would see an increase of about $494 on tax bills for fiscal year 2022. In subsequent years, the amount would decrease to roughly $15 for a house and $190 for FY24.

For curbside recycling under the low bidder of Republic Services, the cost for curbside service at each residence would be $75 per year. The charge for service would be mandatory regardless of use, which is similar to the city's garbage service policy.

The public hearing could come before Council as early as May 17.