Editorial: Plan that still reeks

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 | 9:03 a.m.

On Friday it appeared, to our relief and to that of Las Vegas Valley residents, that existing garbage pickup wouldn't be changed. We say we were relieved because the Las Vegas Sun reported that Republic Services of Southern Nevada, which has a monopoly contract to pick up garbage in the valley until 2035, was backing off an idea to pick up garbage just once a week instead of twice a week as is now the case. It's "back to the drawing board," Bob Coyle, local president of the garbage company, told the Sun.

But soon after the story was published, Coyle called our newspaper to say that the company is "not backing off ... but stepping back." The net result of this flip-flop: The company will still consider going to local governments and asking that they change their contract so that regular garbage collection could be curtailed to just once a week. In return, the company said it would pick up recycling items once a week instead of every two weeks as currently happens.

If the company truly wanted to push for more recycling, which is why it says it is considering the change, then it should just go ahead and increase recycling efforts -- but keep garbage collection intact. What this really is about is a way for Republic Services to cut transportation and labor expenses so that the company will only have to make four trips instead of five every two weeks to a customer's home. Rather than four garbage and one recycling pickups under the current two-week setup, the new plan would have just two garbage and two recycling pickups.

Now is the time for elected government leaders to step forward and tell Republic Services to scrap this plan to reduce customer service, which would result in garbage accumulating and fouling garages and side yards in our brutal summertime heat. Recycling, yes. Reducing customer service, no. It isn't any more complicated than that.