Plan for weekly trash pickup still alive

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, April 25, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

It appears the idea of cutting back on the number of days garbage is picked up may not be trashed after all, and instead could be recycled in the near future.

On Friday morning, Republic Services' area President Bob Coyle told the Sun that he was going "back to the drawing board" and that as a result of the public outcry against the idea of cutting standard garbage collection to once a week instead of twice a week, "clearly I have a lot of egg on my face."

"As we have seen all the controversy, I've gone back and thought about other concepts," Coyle said Friday.

Hours after the Sun published an article paraphrasing Coyle as saying the company was backing away from the once-a-week idea, Coyle called to say he's "not backing off ... (but) stepping back."

"Maybe I didn't express myself as well as I would have wanted," Coyle said Friday afternoon.

The company, he said, will still be considering pushing for a change in its contracts to allow for regular trash collection once a week, instead of twice, and collection of recyclables, such as bottles, cans and newspapers, once a week, instead of every other week.

"What we're doing is stepping back and looking at all of our options as far as improving and enhancing recycling."

"This is just one alternative."

Coyle also said that going from picking up trash twice a week to once a week wouldn't be a cutback in services, it would be "more efficient."

The company director said the county had asked him to look into ways to increase recycling in the Las Vegas Valley shortly after he was hired in September.

Currently, Nevada recycles about 10 percent of its waste, compared with about 30 percent nationwide.

Republic Services has a contract with all area municipalities that extends until 2035.

The concept of changing the schedule included providing area residents with 95-gallon containers for recycling, which would replace the three 12-gallon crates residents currently use.

The new containers, he said, would be make the whole process work better.

"So if you're making it easier for people, providing them with a container, it's providing another service.

"You're providing the same level of pickup, with everything you put out, and with more efficiency."

Coyle compared the difference between the current schedule and the idea under consideration to the difference "between two Quarter Pounders and two hamburgers that add up to a quarter pound."

He said that negative reactions to the idea from members of the public and the media may have been based on a misunderstanding of the idea itself.

"It isn't that the actual level of services is decreased," he said.

"Obviously we need to clarify and explain better that there is an enhancement of services (with this idea)."

"In no way, shape or form do we want to reduce services or raise prices."