Highland Heights Looking to Save Money on Trash

Service Director Thom Evans said competition in the area has lowered costs for rubbish collection – the city of Mentor lowered its cost by 20 percent.

"Recently cities have rebid their rubbish and prices seem to be competitive," Evans said.

J&J Refuse is the city's current rubbish hauler and is being paid a base price of $571,000, which will go up to $611,000 next year.

The three-year contract, which expires in June 2012, also calls for a fuel surcharge whenever diesel fuel is more than $2.40 per gallon. The surcharge – half of 1 percent of the contract per 10 cents  of gas price – amounts to about $40,000 a year.

Evans said the deal with J&J allows for two automatic one-year renewals, but the city can see if it can get a better deal and opt for the renewal if bids aren't lower.

The city is considering getting bids for three options:

• A similar deal with a three-year contract with two automatic one-year renewals

• Including a 96-gallon, wheeled container that would be provided to residents by the company

• Having the company provide the 96-gallon container as well as a smaller container for recycling, which would be collected every other week

"There seems to be some trend that there's cost savings there," Evans said of collecting recyclables every other week rather than weekly.