After months of discussions and numerous amendments, citywide trash and recycling services soon will be coming to Carmel.
The City Council Monday night approved a revised version of the trash collection ordinance allowing all residents to opt out of this service. Republic will begin providing citywide trash and recycling services beginning Jan. 1, 2012, yet residents can opt out only from Dec. 1 through Dec. 31 of this year if they wish to use a third party service provider, and this opt out only applies to the following calendar year. Residents would again need to opt out during this time period for each subsequent year.
Opt-outs are only accepted in December, but residents who opted out and wish to opt in again can do so at any time. As the deal on which it bid has changed, Republic has the right to get out of the deal itself if the number of participating households drops below 20,000.
In 2012, citywide trash and recycling services will cost participating households $8.82 per month before increasing every year in the next four years. The city will keep $.25 per household per month to cover service calls, billing and other customer service operations.
Read more about this in next week’s Current in Carmel.