By Ralph Echtinaw

St. Louis and Alma homeowners can expect to receive curbside “carts” from the twin cities’ new trash hauler next month.

The 96-gallon, wheeled containers are designed to be lifted and emptied by machinery on the collection trucks. They should be positioned with the handle away from the street and be at least three feet away from other objects. Trash should be bagged inside the cart. Recyclables are to be left loose in the cart.

However, Granger Waste Services of Lansing doesn’t take over from Republic until May 2, so don’t put your trash and recyclables in the new carts until then.

Trash will be picked up weekly. Recyclables will be picked up every other week. 

Homeowners can opt out of recyclables pickup if they like the convenience of putting everything in a single cart or don’t want to make room for a second cart. To opt out of the recycling program call (989) 681-2137 or write to Maria Roberson (mroberson@stlouismi.com) if you live in St. Louis. Alma residents should call the Alma government.

St. Louis City Manager Kurt Giles said it’s too soon to say if the city’s monthly charge for residential trash pickup will rise with the new contract. “We’ll review all solid waste charges for the upcoming budget year and make a recommendation for adjustment,” he said via email.

The current charge of $29.67 covers curbside trash and recycling pickup, leaf pickup in the fall and yard waste pickup.

Rising fuel prices will probably be part of the cities’ review of solid waste charges, thanks to a provision of Granger’s contract calling for price increases on residential curbside pickup when the cost of diesel fuel rises. Attachment 1 of Granger’s bid says: “Contractor reserves the right to petition the cities for increases in price due to government taxes, fee, surcharges, fuel costs, etc.” It goes on to say Granger will charge more if the price of diesel fuel exceeds $4/gallon for three consecutive months. “Pricing shall increase 1 cent for each 4-cent increase in diesel fuel above $4/gallon.”

Granger will charge $10 per customer per month for trash pickup and $1.15 for bi-weekly recyclables pickup. Those charges increase by 22 percent over five years and top out at $12.16 and $1.40.

Check out the Granger web site here. If you scroll down to bottom of page you can register to receive alerts when trash pickup will be late.