Last Updated: Feb. 15, 11:12 a.m.
Garbage hauling is a dirty but lucrative business, giving haulers a monopoly and guaranteed income in cities and counties for years at a time. It’s also cut-throat competitive. Waste Pro’s current contract with Palm Coast is a $9 million-a-year business, up from $7 million a decade ago.
When a contract is up in a local government, haulers not only respond to requests for proposals. They also often swoop in with the lobbying and the courting of local officials–if those officials let them.
Palm Coast has previously taken a hard line against those heavy-handed tactics. It’s doing so again, now that its hauling contract is nearing its final year. Palm Coast’s contract with Waste Pro, now 15 years old, expires in May 2022. The city is beginning the long process of analyzing what its residents want from their next hauling contract and what company is best suited to provide it before signing a contract in October.
As if on cue, Waste Pro’s Heather Badger-Felmet, the company’s division manager in Palm Coast, mass-emailed each Palm Coast City Council member on Feb. 3, personalizing each email with the council member’s name (but in a different font). “I know your [sic.] busy but I really just wanted to reach out and see if we could get together. I would love to discuss some of the changes going on around us with solid waste & recycling,” she wrote flatteringly. “I’m trying to focus on some of the new needs that the City of Palm Coast may need. And who better to get this information from but yourself.”
Badger-Felmet then proposed a tour of the facility, a “face-to-face meeting” or lunch, and provided her cell phone number. (In 2011, Waste Pro took a different approach: it attempted to stop Palm Coast from bidding out the contract when it was up for renewal, arguing that since it already had the contract, the city should just negotiate with it only. The city almost did just that.)
“It’s a sales pitch, that’s really what it is,” City Manager Matthew Morton, who in this regard is no different than his predecessor when it comes to bidders’ presumptions, said this morning. He said he was not emailed–though it’s his staff that’s in charge of analyzing contractual needs–but Mayor Milissa Holland forwarded the Badger-Felmet email to him and termed it “inappropriate.” She wanted the email to be part of the record.
Holland “also asked if I had challenged Heather as to the appropriateness of such invitations and emails,” Morton said.
A “deeply disappointed” Morton wrote the Waste Pro manager to that effect. “I am dismayed to learn of several activities WastePro is undertaking and the timing of these activities as we head into a community driven effort to evaluate and publicly bid a contract for municipal waste hauling and recycling services,” he wrote her Thursday afternoon in an email, after noting the importance of the integrity of the city’s procurement process. “More troubling, these activities were brought to my attention by members of the community and the media. I believe these activities undermine the public process and are antithetical to building trust and ensuring transparency.” Morton termed WastePro’s approaching council members improper, as opposed to requesting to speak to them at a council meeting.
Council member Eddie Branquinho also inquired about the invitation. The administration advised strongly against answering or entertaining the email’s propositions, since it’s unethical for elected officials to consort with prospective bidders ahead of a contractual process–including existing contractors, if they are to be part of the bidding process. No company is supposed to have an inside track if the process is to be objective and equal.
Holland, Branquinho and Council member Nick Klufas are not responding to the invitation, Morton said. Council member Ed Danko on Feb. 8 posted pictures of himself posing with Waste Pro personnel at the facility, including Badger-Felmet, calling them “fine, hardworking folks.”
Danko did not disclose having gone on the tour when the council discussed its next hauling contract in a workshop Tuesday. But the WastePro manager after his visit, according to Morton’s email today, singled out Danko for praise, which drew another rebuke from the city manager. “I find it highly inappropriate for a prospective contractor of the City to endorse, over other Councilmembers, as the ‘most active and engaged’ because they chose to visit your site when others declined citing the same ethical concerns aforementioned. The City Council is a deliberative and collegial body of equals,” he wrote. “I have asked the City Attorney to review your activities to determine if you have breached contract or if this rises to the level of lobbying and a violation of Florida Statutes Chapter 112.”
Danko in a subsequent interview said he had not received guidance from the manager not to visit the facility after he got the WastePro invitation. “I will visit any business in Flagler County or Palm Coast that invites me to visit,” Danko said. “I don’t sit in the dark, I don’t bury my head in the sand. Any visit would be a fact-finding, educational visit and would in no way influence how I’d vote on a contract.” He said if other hauling companies facilities were several counties away, he’d travel to visit them as well.
The issues brought up by that email, obtained after this article initially published, may alter the dynamics of the contract negotiations ahead.
That contract could be with Waste Pro again (the county also piggybacks on the city’s contract) or it could be a different company: the trash landscape has changed in the last few years, with recycling becoming a doubtful service as haulers often send their recyclables to landfills because the market for recycling has become too expensive to make it pay, and automation raising possibilities of limiting price increases, but not without concessions from customers, such as changing the frequency of pick-up and the need for standardized garbage cans.
“We don’t have that much time,” Morton said on Tuesday of the window before the current contract expires. The city is analyzing the landscape of garbage and recycling, “what’s happening in the state of Florida, what’s happening nationally,” and understanding what residents want in garbage service in the future. The city hired a consultant, NewGen Strategies, that specializes in analyzing garbage-hauling matters. Staffers have been meeting with the consultant since January on a weekly basis. (The city is paying up to $25,000 for that consulting contract.)
Cynthia Schweers, the city’s director of citizen engagement, and Jordan Myers, the city’s environmental planning technician, briefed the council Tuesday on what’s been done so far and what’s ahead. “There’s a lot of decisions that need to be made, so what we want to do is make that every resident and council [member] part of that decision making,” Schweers said.
Currently, Palm Coast’s contract with Waste Pro calls for twice a week pick-up or ordinary garbage, once a week yard pick-up, and once a week recycling, for $20.36 a month, or $244.32 a year. That’s not much more than the $239 a year residents paid in 2011. (When the city renewed its contract with Waste Pro that year, prices fell modestly thanks to the company’s switch to natural gas-powered trucks.)
Waste Pro isn’t the only entity making money. The city takes a 10 percent franchise fee off the top, sending 8 percent to the general fund and using it as one of its hedges to keep the property tax low. The other 2 percent remains in the solid waste fund for administrative needs. In 2019, the city made $719,472 off that fee, and last year generated $724,500. It is, in essence, a hidden tax that seldom gets discussed–and didn’t on Tuesday. If that fee wasn’t assessed, it would of course provide a 10 percent reduction in customers’ fees. Other cities’ garbage rates are lower for that reason (see the comparative numbers with Deltona and Debary, for example, below.)
Palm Coast’s garbage rates have not gone up in five years, but there’s been a few changes, including changes in the recycling world, that anticipate higher rates ahead.
The city will be issuing a nine-question survey to Palm Coast residents in March to gauge their preferences for the next contract. The survey will go out through utility bills, on Palm Coast Connect, and will be available at all city locations. The city will also host an online town hall to enable residents to ask their questions more directly, and ask community associations to blast out emails to engage residents. The goal: “How we can make sure that that rate doesn’t increase tremendously,” Schweers said. (See the survey questions in the embedded document below.)
The nine questions gauge residents’ satisfaction with Waste Pro currently, ask about frequency of trash pick-up (would residents agree to once a week pick-up if costs were reduced?), would residents accept a city-provided, wheeled container (which enables the hauler to automate its service, reducing its truck’s personnel from two people to one), ask about yard and bulk waste, and devote four questions to recycling, an industry in flux.
Aside from recycling, the issue typically debated in garbage contracts is whether there should be once or twice a week pick-ups, and whether the hauler should have automated pick-up or not. The city experimented with the once-a-week approach in the B Section several years ago. It entailed a bigger, standardized trash can. “Some people liked it, some people didn’t.” Schweers said, who was part of the pilot and liked it. But with a single person on a truck, it could also leave more litter behind the truck, unseen, and prices would have to be analyzed. (Bunnell uses the single-person, automated approach.) “It’s a good discussion to have until we see our options,” Schweers said.
The dislike of the larger cans also had to do with demographics. Holland noted that older residents have a harder time rolling out larger cans to the curb–and the city, with 30 percent of its population now 65 and over (compared to 24 percent a decade ago) is still aging.
The results of the survey will be presented to the council in April, with a request for proposals set to go by May or June, awarding a contract by October.
“Apparently prices are going to go up,” Branquinho said, with the survey serving as a means of calibrating the contractual decision accordingly. “Are we doing this to save money? Or we expect the prices to go really high? And what is the reason why prices should go that high,” he asked Morton.
“We don’t know if there’ll even be an increase, candidly,” Morton said. “We’re expecting an increase for two reasons: the industrial rate indices and the CPI indices that waste haulers use continue to increase like a lot of business cost drivers,” he said, referring to the consumer price index that measures inflation. “We’ve had no adjustment to either one of those in our contract for multiple years. I think the bigger driver is recycling. There’s a point in time in the not-too distant past that recycling, like a lot of commodity markets, was profitable. At this point recycling is not profitable as a commodity market,” mainly because China stopped accepting over 90 percent of the world’s recyclable materials. “We’re at the point in America unfortunately at this moment in time where it’s cheaper to make new products than it is to recycle existing products, So the real baseline, initial idea behind this survey is informing our residents on some choice versus quality factors. More importantly, understanding what decisions council may want to guide this contract to minimize costs if that’s what the public is telling us, if that’s their primary goal.”
He spoke hypothetically: if automated hauling would offset the projected cost increase, “is that a trade people are willing to make even if they’re not big fans of automation?” he asked. “We really want to try to bring a balance back and let council direct where this process goes by information we’re getting from the community.”
Rates have not increased significantly at all since 2010. Back then, a Palm Coast home paid $19.82 a month for garbage hauling. The current $20.36 charge is a 2.7 percent increase since then, but in inflation-adjusted dollars, the $19.82 fee would equate to $23.93 today. (The cumulative increase in the official consumer price index since 2010 is 19.45 percent.)
In comparison, the city’s own water utility fees and stormwater fees have skyrocketed way beyond inflation since 2010. The stormwater fee was $8 a month for a residential home. It’s now $18.91, a 136 percent increase and a rate almost as high as the garbage rate. By 2024, the stormwater rate will be $23.95, a 200 percent increase from 2010.
The base water rate was $13.31 in 2010. It’s now $18.21 for a single-family home, a 37 percent increase. The sewer base rate was $11.17. It’s now $17.88, a 60 percent increase. Put another way, the typical single-family home was paying $54.64 a month for combined water and sewer in 2012. It’s now paying $79.36, a 45 percent increase, and will be paying $84 a month by 2024, a 53 percent increase.
The bulk of these increases were required in part because the city’s ITT-era stormwater infrastructure was approaching failing-state status while the city’s construction of water and sewer infrastructure last decade overshot population-increase estimates. When housing crashed and the projected population for the following decade did not materialize–the new population base that was supposed to shoulder the larger share of the cost of those projects–the cost was shifted to existing residents. The city had no negotiating room with bond holders, whose demands always supersede those of ratepayers. (Credit agencies rewarded Palm Coast with a higher rating.)
So city officials’ hand wringing over potential increases in the garbage rate is somewhat disingenuous, at least when plucked out of the context of the city’s other inescapable fees–and when compared with the absence, in years preceding Morton’s tenure, of any public analyses, surveys of residents, town hall meetings and consultant contracts whenever water, sewer and stormwater fees go stratospheric. When those increases have been enacted, they’ve been preceded by presentations to council that convey a sense of done-deal inevitability, the implicit message to residents being: suck it up.
And still, what new contracts have been signed in the region in the last few years, at least with Waste Pro, continue to show only modest increases.
In 2019, Ormond Beach renewed its agreement with Waste Pro, ending recycling for glass and seeing its monthly rates increase from $20.31 to $21.55. That year Deltona also negotiated a new five-year contract with Waste Pro, with fees there rising from $14.50 a month to $16.90–after Waste Pro and the city agreed to end the recycling program there, since recycling materials were ending up in a landfill anyway. In 2018, DeBary signed a five-year contract with Waste Pro that saw rates increase almost exactly as they had in Deltona, including recycling.
“We’ll see,” Holland said. “This is the first step of many. It’s going to be interesting to see how the contract changes due to the issues that Mr. Morton has identified.” She said residents should be heard “first and foremost.” She and other council members were especially appreciative of the planned survey–a step not taken in previous such contract renewals.
See Garbage Haulers’ Bids to Palm Coast in 2011:
Grammarnazi says
If you’re going to lobby someone with a letter, the least you could do is use correct English and spelling. YOU’RE, a contraction of you are. YOUR, meaning something that you possess. YORE, something from the past or long ago.
“I know your busy but I really just wanted to reach out and see if we could get together. I would love to discuss some of the changes going on around us with solid waste & recycling,” she wrote flatteringly. “I’m trying to focus on some of the new needs that the City of Palm Coast may need. And who better to get this information from but yourself.”
Katrina R. Belora says
Why wasn’t a bid sent to ELS, an up and coming small business?
Graylon E Johnson says
Once a week is fine with me. I have lived in several states and always had once a week pick up with the can furnished. recycle can be stopped. Anything to lower or keep prices down like Daytona.
tulip says
Once a week trash collection is NOT a good idea, especially in Florida. I know of many people, including whose trash begins to smell after 3 days. Letting it sit for a week in heat and humidity is not a good idea.
Skibum says
I am in agreement with you regarding not wanting only once a week trash pick-up. When I lived in WA state, we had only weekly trash collection and that was fine there. With our very warm weather here in FL, and especially the increased humidity, I am happy to have my trash can NOT sit for a full week before being emptied. If that were to happen, I would most likely resort to the occasional road trip to find a commercial dumpster if there was something in a trash bag that I did not want stinking up the place for several days before collection. I know it is not appropriate to take your personal trash and dispose of it in someone else’s dumpster, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do if trash pick-up is limited. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!
Debbie says
You can do what many people do, put garbage in the freezer until trash day. That way it doesn’t stink up the place for a week.
We have always done this even with twice a week pick-up.
Also,your reasoning on not using large, wheeled trash cans and trucks with an automated arm. It was stated that the driver would not notice wayward trash.
Well, the guys who pick it up now don’t even bother to pick up stuff they drop. I always have trash all over my street and yard after the trash people have picked up.
And a large can on wheels is a lot easier to move than a heavy bag or can with no wheels.
Agkistrodon says
Seems very green of you to use valuable energy to freeze your garbage…….no thanks.
Debbie says
Not sure how you store your frozen food. Not wasting any energy that I can see since my freezer is already running to keep my other foods frozen. 🤦🏻♀️
Dennis C Rathsam says
CAN I USE YOUR FREEZER? MINE IS FULL OF FOOD!
Another One Lost says
I find it a bit hypocritical that Mayor Holland would find this email “Inappropriate”. It wasn’t that long ago that she was soliciting business for her employer Coastal Cloud on her official email.
TR says
PC should find a different waste company. Waste Pro is the worst. Not picking up garbage, racing up and down streets putting the kids in danger as they walk to bus stops. Garbage flying out of the back of truck as it races down the streets. See it almost every time they run the route. Talking about the R section, but if they’re doing it in the R section I’m sure they’re doing it all through town.
Debbie says
I agree. They miss entire sections on a regular basis and never pick up trash that they drop.
Angie says
I agree. They have really went downhill in the last 2 years. It won’t really matter what we want. It will go to the one that will grease pockets
Tim says
Consumer pricing is so far out of control it’s not funny! Many are making the same income as the 1970’s and those of us on Social Security got a whopping 1.3% increase this year consumed by Medicare and in your article your disclosing 60% to 136% cost increases! Unbelievable! Same goes for insurance premiums, rent, food, auto repairs and/or replacement and mortgage payments. Ladies and Gentlemen it won’t be long till the people’s money runs out, then what? I wish my income generated those kind of percentage increases!
WISDOM says
1. Currently, there’s no recycling going on. What Waste Pro does, and has been doing for months, is they throw the contents of the recycling bins into a standard garbage truck, a lot of the time when they pick up regular trash. Why do we Palm Coast residents bother to spend time separating paper from plastic recyclable refuse, place it separately on the side of the road in recycling containers, only to have it all dumped into the regular garbage truck when the regular trash is picked up? I see it every week. It’s been going on for months. Sometimes the garbage truck will make a second swing by on recycling days to pick up recycling, but its all going into the standard garbage truck and being crushed, paper and plastic, all together in a standard garbage truck. Again, this has been going on for MONTHS.
2. There has to be something better than Waste Pro. How about finding a local entrepreneur who’s got the mental and business savvy to come up with something better? Why not bid it out, and not only to standard large waste contractors?
3. It’s YOU’RE, not your. Yes, I’m a spelling Nazi. (Hopefully I won’t get attacked for using that “N” word). Doesn’t anyone know the difference between you’re and your these days? I guess not.
Agkistrodon says
That recycling thing has been going on for years, and I commented on it before and was called a liar. Good to see someone else finally noticed the obvious. As for garbage flying out the back, palm coast also sa problem with simple asshats throwing their fast food trash out their windows, congratulations, you are the equivalent o f what you throw out your window. Perhaps the originating vendor should be held responsible for that garbage eh?……..
Chris says
Actually false about recycling. If you’re basing your assumptions on the fact that they now just trowing the contents of your recycling bins into one truck without sorting, you’re unaware that Waste Pro uses an advanced sorting called a Materials Recovery Facility that separates the materials on site. Items to be recycled include paper, newspapers, cardboard , steel, aluminum and plastic. Ask for a tour, they’ll oblige.
Agkistrodon says
You believe everything they tell you right. The bulk of all recycling goes in the landfill, it’s been and always was a scam. They bundle it ship it off to some foreign land and call that recycling. You are in dreamland.
Denali says
Try again – myself and others have watched the guys from Waste Pro toss the trash, the recycling and yard waste all at once into the same truck. Now if their “advanced sorting facility” will separate the dirty diapers, last weeks meatloaf, lawn clippings and used whatever from the glass and plastics which we all carefully rinsed, I will retract this response. However, I seriously doubt I have any need to break out the apology pen.
Monte Cristo says
Typical of a municipality that has to rely on a consultant. Do this bid in house.
This consultant is a distant cousin of Waste Pro. This consultant firm is not transparent as to who the owners are, and how they are related to Waste Pro’s current owners, its former owners. They need to disclose ownership.
You can’t even look the owners up on Sunbiz or the Secretary of State of Florida website.
As far as the single operator service. Bunnell has been successfully operating for the last 12 years. Excellent service asks the residents. Also cost-effective with limited increases.
The streets are cleaner in Bunnell with carts, because the garbage carts don’t get molested by birds and critters. It’s much more sanitary, neater looking on the road vs. a heap of loose bags and open garbage cans with missing lids.
Lastly, once a week service is just a con from the waste companies and consultants to make the City staff feel good deal for bad service. I do want my trash to sit for a week in this hot Florida sun. The roaches and flies will be disgusting; NO THANKS for that level of BS quality service.
Why can’t the City staff do this bid by themselves?
I hear the current contract manager is good. Let her do the research.
As far as our City Council members. It’s a trap to get them disqualified from the vote. This is a setup from Waste Pro and Consultant to get this contract.
Good thing our Mayor Holland saw that coming and and said it was inappropriate.
Hey City Manager be careful with these guys they don’t care about you or the City. Easy way to get fired as a City Manager give bad garbage service.
Good Luck
Monte Cristo
Agkistrodon says
Second that on eliminating one day of pickup, whoever said that must be new to florida.
No WP advocate says
Third that. Also, Their timing is always inconsistent. I usually take the trash out on my way to work at 8:30Am on garbage days, as I don’t want raccoons or wind to blow it over I live on a saltwater canal but somedays As Im having breakfast I hear the incredible squeaky brakes of the garbage truck and run out there. Just passed my house which is 3 down from the Cul de sac. Stood out by side of road with my can and waved at driver as he circled and came back by but he waved me off like nope and sped right by me. So a week is too long as I have to keep the cans out of sight so that means in the garage, I can smell it before a week in the house. Also, Often there is trash left all around our cans I have to pick up and the cans are tossed on their sides where wind can blow them around, its an obstacle course to get home on windy trash days. I have to give waste pro low marks.
LetThemEatCake says
How about someone that picks up all the trash and doesn’t let it float around the neighborhood. I should never go outside and collect my can and see trash on my lawn. Same with the recycle people (different, I know). Pick up cans when they fall on the ground. C’mon man.
I don’t care about the garbage can size, I buy my own. I just want someone to take all the trash bags and not leave any behind. If we get a new recycle company I want a huge garbage-can bin option. I recycle 4-5 bins Weekly. If I had 2 garbage sized recycle bins, I could do everything at once.
Agkistrodon says
Currently you are not recycling, you think you are, but you’ve been scammed, all that goes in the landfill.
Les Paul says
79% of all recycling goes into landfills.
Steve says
Get Donald Trump to negotiate for us
Capt says
I live on the barrier island and I have not had any issues with Waste Pro in the last 6 years.
Stretchem says
“–but Mayor Milissa Holland forwarded the Badger-Felmet email to him and termed it “inappropriate.” She wanted the email to be part of the record.”
The irony spilled out of the can, rolled down the street and careened into a flock of vultures munching on rotted doughnuts leftover from the morning’s Coastal Cloud strategic meeting.
Mona says
My garbage can is almost always thrown to the street, not left in my driveway. I saw the recycling pickup man throwing the empty bin that when it hit the concrete, it broke.
Jimbo99 says
When I first relocated here, that was my first expectation. That the garbage wasn’t even a taxed item, that we would have at best a service choice and that the garbage container was provided in that fee. I might have a couple of Wal-Mart sized plastic bags every couple of days anyway. I take care of my own pretty much, drop it off at a location with a dumpster along with the few cardboard boxes of bulk recyclables that accumulate.
I think the heavier items like appliances should be scheduled or pickup, that way junk doesn’t sit at the curb for days or weeks. I do appreciate storm debris pickup too.
This price increase seems tied to the over population and new construction in the area. What can you do when they’re building rental duplex after duplex and those are overutilized for occupancy, then you have the new apartment complexes too.
Jimbo99 says
Could be worse, a few years back in Yulee, FL there were 2 companies that didn’t have contracts, residents were free to use whichever service they preferred. Company provided garbage cans, they were automated, reduced labor trucks. The lower priced company was about $ 60/month, the more expensive about $ 80/month there. The lower priced company sold off to the higher priced company in the end and everyone paid about $ 80/month just for garbage collection. water is higher here and significantly more than what I paid in Miami, FL even.
Anyway, I see too many hoarders and overutilizers of garbage around my neighborhood. I generally keep my trash footprint as a minimalist approach. Most of the time, I end up picking up my neighbor’s trash out of my yard. That’s from their garbage cans over flowing, the vultures that pick at the bags and the wind eventually blowing it into my world. There are quite a few that flat out drive thru the neighborhood and just litter or even dump their garbage out the vehicle as they drive to their home. Those types are people that I wish would find somewhere else to be. As they build new duplexes, I can count on the land clearing, resulting in a stack of worn out steel belted radial tires sitting in the swale(s) throughout the construction phases. These people know who they are that are dumping.
metoo says
I used to recycle everything but the pickup became on again off again. I talked to the city and the response I received was” that’s the system and if you don’t like it don’t recycle. It’s voluntary so live with it”.
Bill C says
Everyone wants to blame the waste haulers. Part of the problem is that there is so much demand for convenience items, such as single serve water bottles or coffee “k-cups”, items that create so much packaging waste to deliver a small amount of product. The laziness of consumers contributes greatly to the waste choking the ocean with plastic and our land with trash.
MRC says
Waste Pro is the WORST trash haulers I have ever encountered in my many years of home ownership in various states. For many years companies provided large garbage totes, and we had an option of once or twice a week service (twice a week cost a little more) and I NEVER had problems with the quality of my service. However, when I moved here in 2016, with Waste Pro I have literally had 3 trash cans destroyed by them, they routinely throw my trash cans down a deep swale and the lids in the opposite direction, they have not picked up my trash several times, leave a trail of trash throughout the neighborhood, not picked up yard waste for weeks at a time! Uh, yeah, we need a different trash hauler! Plus the city needs to offer residents a menu of optional services they want with various pricing. With the current set up we have no recourse to take. In other cities we would be able to “fire” the poor carriers and then select another service. But when the city controls waste pick up, it creates and perpetuates the type of problems we are all experiencing. Honestly, the system needs major work. As far as the “large totes” and the elderly are concerned, I can assure you that if I can do it, you can too! (I am in a wheelchair and elderly). That is not a legitimate concern. There are programs for people with disabilities to get their waste picked up directly at your garage door, so you would only have to push the can a few feet outside of your garage; issue solved. As far as “stinky garbage” is concerned, good grief. Have you not heard of composting or other measures you could take to mitigate this issue? And recycling services are essential! Have we learned nothing about our environment and the effect plastic and other non-biodegradable items have on wildlife and the ecologically delicate environmental systems? You are dead wrong if you think this is not important. YES, we do need a new waste hauler and a reform of the current system.
Concerned Citizen says
Much Ado about nothing it seems.
Whatever happened to all the concern about Mayor Holland using city email for Coastal Cloud Busniess? It seems our leadership is above reproach and only subordinates are called out on unethical conduct.
People are right on both the lack of recycling and littering. I was behind a Wate Pro Truck on Palm Coast Pkwy the other day. And Witnessed the driver toss out an entire bag and cup of fast food trash. Right onto the median before US1. When I called it in the young woman answering the phones was less than enthused to be bothered. And was actually rude and hung up.
All you grammer experts make for a good laugh. All the concerns currently going on. Yet you are above reproach yourself. And act high and mighty correcting others spelling. Does it make you feel better? It must be nice to be grammar perfect.
snapperhead says
How about making residents call or go online to request yard waste be collected like we do for hazardous waste? Why do we pay for them to drive by my house once a week, 52 weeks a year, to collect yard waste 2 or 3 times? Now that is a waste.
Bob Fiddle says
They don’t drive around picking up yard waste every week. Maybe once a month.
snapperhead says
Yard Waste Pickup
Vegetative debris is picked up weekly, on Wednesdays, throughout the City. Yard waste can be piled loosely in your yard next to the road, or placed in containers.
https://www.palmcoastgov.com/trash/yardwaste
TR says
Not true, they come by my street every Wed. for yard waste pick up.
Richard says
Waste Pro does a great job as far as I can see, but obviously trash collection should be competitively bid. Lowest bid should not be the only factor. Weekly trash pickup is too infrequent for Florida due to heat and insects and rodents. Any standardized trash containers should consider the capabilities of senior residents.
Steve says
Some good suggestions by the commenters. One that you dont want IMO is once a week pickup. Too hot will stink horribly and give animals more time to find what’s rotting and get into it.
George says
Give everyone their $244 back and let them choose who picks up their trash, how often it’s done, and what kind of cans they use.
Paul Larkin says
My thanks to Bill C for 1/12 entry above for communicating sentiment that I share…I read that we are pouring 9 MILLION tons of plastic annually (which is also likely going to be increasing in quantity) into our Oceans with devastating, sad and tragic impact …and that mostly likely consisting of one use plastic items…have we not become slaves to conveniece…also while I sympathize with the sloppiness of some Waste Pro collection I also feel for those guys doing a very difficult job for the community’s benefit and am grateful for that…
compaqrat says
I’m not going to reply to all the comments. First off. The city need to get bids for other companies for the waste removal in Palm Coast. As far as some issues with trash not getting picked up, there was a notice a while back that stated that trash be put out no earlier than 6 PM the night before and if they come at 7AM on trash day and your trash is not out that is your fault. Crows, vultures and animals. Put a lid on the barrel. I see far to many containers in my neighborhood with no lids and bags overflowing from the can. Trash in the road. WP is messy and rarely picks up after them selves. I clean trash from my neighbors frequently because they think WP should do it. They are the ones with no lids. Another problem I have with WP is that the tend to grab the trash bags from the barrel and don’t get them all. The don’t pick up barrel and empty it in the truck. Recycle? Joke. I sort all of mine and have 2 bins for that. I used to se a recycle truck that had different compartments for different recycle. Haven’t seen that for a while. Just goes straight into a compactor truck. IMO people think any container, packaging goes in the recycle. Wrong. Read the brochure when you signed up to get utility service. Yard waste was good at one time on Wednesdays. Not so much any more.
Thank you for reading. This is just my opinion.
Debbie says
Ok.
1. Once a week is plenty. If you have something smelly, put it in the freezer until trash day.
2. Don’t complain they miss you if you don’t put your trash out the night before. That being said, we always put ours out the night before and they STILL miss ours.
3. Yes, Waste Pro is the worst! They leave trash all over the street and yards. They drop it or spill it and then don’t pick it up.
4. Anyone can handle the large, wheeled trash containers, which would make it much better for once a week pick up and also decrease the amount of workers needed per truck
Celia M Pugliese says
Lets do not make changes in reducing pick ups a week to one as then the rodents infestation will be unbearable and worst than now and the stench in the Florida heat really pungent. Also generates lays off and unemployment that we all end up paying for anyway. I have no complaints about the Waste Pro workers they do type of less than desirable work that we wont dare do and at least by my house and street they are excellent workers. They pick up the mess that some residents do not bother to properly discard in tight lid containers as per city ordinance and that is disseminated by rodents and other wildlife overnight because they only discard it in cheap plastic bags. Don’t blame the Waste Pro workers for some residents failure to properly discard their refuse and even worst when they get delayed by cars improperly and against city ordinance not enforced, parked in the street overnight living very little space for the huge haulers to maneuver around them! Then of course the can miss a pick up for that. Better watch what we verbally wish for undermining the good service we have now. Also as I recall in the past when city changed back then from Waste Management to Waste Pro our rate went up…if just now they decide to go and spend 25,000 on a consultant that will add to our rate is not free. Not all changes are for the best.
palmcoaster says
Lets do not make changes in reducing pick ups a week to one as then the rodents infestation will be unbearable and worst than now and the stench in the Florida heat really pungent. Also generates lays off and unemployment that we all end up paying for anyway. I have no complaints about the Waste Pro workers they do type of less than desirable work that we wont dare do and at least by my house and street they are excellent workers. They pick up the mess that some residents do not bother to properly discard in tight lid containers as per city ordinance and that is disseminated by rodents and other wildlife overnight because they only discard it in cheap plastic bags. Don’t blame the Waste Pro workers for some residents failure to properly discard their refuse and even worst when they get delayed by cars improperly and against city ordinance not enforced, parked in the street overnight living very little space for the huge haulers to maneuver around them! Then of course the can miss a pick up for that. Better watch what we verbally wish for undermining the good service we have now. Also as I recall in the past when city changed back then from Waste Management to Waste Pro our rate went up…if just now they decide to go and spend 25,000 on a consultant that will add to our rate is not free. Not all changes are for the best.
MITCH says
Waste Pro workers are very good at what they do and it definitely is a very difficult job. I know I could not possibly stand hanging on the back of the truck all day the way they do and some of the pickup items are very heavy. We need better reporting; I know there are injuries with that kind of job; if residents were aware maybe we’d be more thankful as what they are doing for us. Also, I like to give them a tip during Christmas, but find it difficult to wait for them to come by because of the different hours; but I usually give them a card with some cash. It would be nice for the City to arrange a place we could drop off cards with our street name on them so the workers could enjoy Christmas from thankful residents. DO NOT CHANGE NUMBER of PICKUPS. It would not take long for a mess to be in front of homes for days. We do not need that.
MerylH says
I have no problems with Waste Pro. The guys are courteous and prompt. Trucks break down and get full and have to be emptied to continue, but honestly if they miss a Friday pick up , they are always here first thing Sat. Morning. That’s service! You have to be an athlete to Jump down, pick up 50 lb. can, empty it, put it back down, Jump back up on truck, and repeat. I wouldn’t make it to the end of the street, honestly. Keep Waste Pro!!!