The Yamhill County Solid Waste Advisory Committee will hold a "work meeting" to consider the County's waste hauling franchises. The County currently has exclusive agreements for pick up of waste from residences and businesses with Waste Management (north County, in Newberg area) and Recology (the rest of the County, including McMinnville area). No other hauler can be paid by a consumer to haul waste in the unincorporated County. (Note: Cities award their own franchises.)
County franchises are awarded for 10 years, but historically the franchisees have asked the County to renew the contracts before the end of the 10-year term, often several years early. Although the franchises allow such extensions, County residents question this practice, which essentially awards a perpetual monopoly to the current franchisees. Critics of this "automatic" renewal practice, including the Stop the Dump Coalition, would like to see the County put the franchises up for bid.
When the two franchisees were locally-owned, granting monopoly status made a sort of sense. Dollars spent for waste hauling remained in the community. The goal of minimizing customer costs through a competitive bid process was outweighed by the benefits of protecting local business owners and their employees.
But now profits from waste hauling go elsewhere -- to Texas in the case of Waste Management and California for Recology. Awarding a monopoly to these franchisees no longer provides any special benefit to Yamhill County.
When Columbia County went to bid with its hauling contracts earlier this year, Republic Services submitted the lowest bid and won the contract. Republic owns Coffin Butte Landfill in Benton County. Previously Waste Management had hauled Columbia's waste to Riverbend.
If Yamhill County went to bid, who knows what might happen? Republic might bid for our waste. Or Waste Connections out of Washington might make us an offer. Even better, little local vendors like Water Truck Services might submit the winning bid to haul specific types of waste, in their case grape crush leftovers. Or Recology and Waste Management might discover that they can haul our waste for less than they have been charging.
It's worth a try. Moreover, since our County Commissioners have made the "low cost" of Riverbend Landfill a significant reason for supporting landfill expansion, we should go to bid if only to determine that in fact we are receiving the "lowest cost."
Make your preferences known at the SWAC meeting: Tuesday, September 30, 4:00pm, in room 32 of the Yamhill County Courthouse. Or send your comments to Sherrie Mathison at mathiss@co.yamhill.or.us or Commissioner Mary Starrett, who is the Solid Waste liaison, at starrettm@co.yamhill.or.us.
