Garbage notebook: Waste disposal contract drops costs for Bloomington, not enough to lower cart fees
For at least the next two years, the city of Bloomington will be paying less for the disposal of the refuse that its sanitation crews collect from curbside carts that residents set out every week.
Under the terms of the two-year contract approved by Bloomington’s board of public works on Tuesday, for the stuff that Republic Services of Indiana hauls away, the city will pay $43 per ton of trash and $10 per ton of single-stream recycling material.
This year is the final year of Republic’s 2019 contract, which had been renewed for two more years, after the initial three-year term.
Under the terms of that contract, the city is now paying $48.37 for disposal of trash. Next year’s rate of $43 per ton will be 11 percent less than that.
For recycling materials, the difference is bigger. This year the city is paying Republic $27.20 per ton, but next year that amount will drop to less than half that—$10 per ton.
The total disposal cost savings—in the context of the other, bigger costs connected to waste collection—won’t cause the city to re-think the curbside cart fee increase, which was enacted by the city council this past summer.
The $43 per ton figure for trash disposal is the same amount specified at the start of Republic’s 2019 contract, before any CPI increases were applied.
For the 2019 contract, Bloomington received just one bid—from Republic. This year, another company put in an offer.
Rumpke of Indiana matched Republic’s cost for trash disposal at $43 a ton. But Rumpke was way over the cost for disposal of recycling, offering $68 per ton compared to Republic’s bid of just $10 per ton. [Republic’s bid] [Rumpke’s bid]
Rumpke’s higher bid for the recycling disposal could be due in part to the much greater distance that Rumpke would have to cover from Bloomington to its facility in Cincinnati, compared to Republic’s trip up to Indianapolis.
How much of a total cost savings will come from the drop in rates? That depends on how much trash and recycling material is generated in 2024 by Bloomington residents who receive curbside waste collection services.
The most recent full year’s worth of trash and recycling collection data that is available on the city’s B Clear Data portal is from 2022. In that year, the city collected 7,918 tons of trash and 2,594 tons of single-stream recycling material.
Based on 2022 tonages, here’s how total disposal costs break down, when 2023 rates are compared to 2024 rates.
| Y2024 $/ton | Y2023 $/ton | Y2022 tons | Y2023 cost | Y2024 cost | Difference |
| $10 | $27.19 | 2,593.81 | $70,531 | $25,938 | $44,593 |
| $43.00 | $48.37 | 7,917.53 | $382,971 | $340,454 | $42,517 |
| $453,502 | $366,392 | $87,110 |
After Tuesday’s board of public works meeting, The B Square confirmed with public works director Adam Wason that the savings would not translate into a price drop for the cart fees that residents pay.
The potential $87,000 savings comes in the context of a roughly $3-million budget for collecting the trash and recycling materials.
The disposal cost is just a portion of the total cost. Most of the cost associated with curbside waste collection is to pay the workers, and to cover fuel and vehicle costs.
The cart fees paid by residents are set to increase at the start of 2024. The city council approved the rate increase in August of this year.
The cost for a 35-gallon trash cart, which is the smallest size, will go from $6.51 to $8.75 per month. That’s 34-percent more.
A 64-gallon cart, which is the next size up, will go from $11.61 to $16.00 a month. And a 96-gallon cart, which is the biggest size, will increase from $18.52 to $24 a month.
