At the Monday Feb. 9 meeting, the Evansville City Council approved a phased-rate increase for city trash and recycling service.
The Evansville Water and Sewer Utility (EWSU) administers the trash and recycling contract with Republic Services. EWSU Executive Director Vic Kelson said the contract has been increasing in cost.
“Their charges have gone up, but our revenues have not gone up,” he said. “We have now been making up the difference with dollars from the sewer utility. So up to now, we have a shortfall of about $1.3 million since 2022.”
The EWSU paid $8 million to repair the riverside sinkhole. They’re also planning an expensive capital project.
Todd Chamberlain with Republic Services said they have to increase rates because labor and fuel prices have increased, despite striving for efficiency.
“We're looking for all the levers and trying to pull all of them that we can. It simply isn't enough without some type of rate adjustment,” he said. “Simply put, the cost can continue to overrun what efficiencies we've been able to gain.”
Residents will see their trash and recycling bills increase by $2 on the January bill.
It will increase by another $2 in 2027 and then $3.62 in 2028.
Aside from reducing services, Kelson said there’s only one way to slow future rate increases for trash collection — make less trash.
“Fewer tons of trash will cost less,” Kelson said. “So some day in the future, we'll get a smaller increase, or hopefully no increase, if we can cut the amount of trash we have substantially. That's a hard lift, because it takes all of us to do that.”
The only “no” vote for the measure was Angela Koehler Lindsey who wasn’t comfortable with the rate increase.
This phased plan was proposed in January by the EWSU. The first plan was not phased, but an all-in-one plan with increases for inflation. The City Council asked for a gradual increase.
The EWSU has negotiated some additions to the contract — Republic Services will provide dumpsters for Block-By-Block cleanups four times a year and allow the EWSU to handle customer service.
This contract will last until the end of 2028 as the EWSU explores other options. Ideas floated by council members included allowing for individual trash removal contracts.
Chamberlain said, “let me assure you that the last thing that you want in the city limits of Evansville is more heavy trucks on your streets, more heavy trucks in the alleyways.” He said such an option isn't embraced by other cities like Evansville.
Even if another trash carrier was selected, they’d still end up using the Republic Services landfill and pay that fee per ton, in additional to their service cost.
Kelson did share figures from trash and recycling costs from other communities. Evansville would still be at the lower end of fees according to his research, shared with City Council.
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