Fairfax County, Virginia, is considering changing who collects residential trash, a step that some local business owners worry will put their futures in jeopardy.
Currently, most residents or homeowners associations oversee the logistics of trash collection themselves. The county only handles that process for about 10% of residential customers, according to county data.
But county leaders are proposing they oversee the logistics of the process, negotiating prices and dividing the county’s single-family neighborhoods into what are called Unified Sanitation Districts.
“Until the county has control of the countywide system, we’re not going to be able to address the concerns that the board and that we are receiving about too many different private trash companies operating in any neighborhood, wildly inconsistent pricing,” said Christopher Herrington, director of the county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services. “Some folks have the same service from the same company and pay a different price as their neighbor.”
The step, Herrington said, would also help the county reach its sustainability goals. He expects the switch, which is subject to board approval, would result in lower prices and more convenient service for residents.
Under Virginia law, counties can oversee trash collection after establishing Unified Sanitation Districts, but the locality is required to give private companies five years notice. Therefore, Herrington said, “Nothing can change for at least the next five years.”
Larry Foster, one of the owners of Evergreen Disposal, said the switch would lead to a “potential lack of service, increase in fees and loss of choice.” His company services about 20,000 homes and has worked in Fairfax County for over a year.
Evergreen provides glass in its recycling, Foster said, saving residents time from dropping it off in purple bins.
“If you want once-a-week service, twice-a-week service, whatever, it’s a good choice and it breeds competition,” Foster said. “When you have competition, like when we came in with putting glass in recycling, it’s a great opportunity to help the community in ways that other people can’t.”
David Biderman, president of Biderman Consulting, said the change would result in homeowners losing their ability to switch waste haulers if they’re unhappy with the service they’re getting.
“Once a big company wins a contract, the service quality goes down historically,” Biderman said.
As part of the proposal, residents would have their trash collected by private-sector contractors who are working with the county directly. There haven’t been final decisions made about what services would be provided, and how often, if the change were made, Herrington said.
“I know some folks in the community are concerned, ‘Well, how do we know exactly what would happen for us?’” Herrington said. “The difficulty is we can’t go to procurement and hire a contractor that won’t get paid or won’t start work for five years from now.”
Herrington addressed small businesses’ concerns about their operations, saying the county has been “contracting our new customers to be served by private haulers, and both big companies and small companies have won those contracts.”
Supervisor Pat Herrity is hosting a virtual town hall on the possible change Tuesday night, and a Board of Supervisors public hearing is scheduled for later this month.
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