Discussions over the future of Islamorada’s garbage collection are underway. The council will face a decision this year of keeping the services of Waste Management, which took over garbage service in the village for Advanced Disposal after purchasing the company in October 2020 for $4.6 billion, or going with a smaller local company that’s expressed interest in providing garbage pickup.
The dais could exercise a five-year option with Waste Management, which currently takes care of trash twice a week, recycling once a week and yard waste once a week. Waste Management has served the village and its 4,000-plus residents with garbage pickup for 40 months.
Greg Sullivan, local manager for Waste Management, acknowledged to the village council at the Feb. 9 meeting his willingness to negotiate with Village Manager Ted Yates.
“We’re here to serve you and we hope we did a good job,” he said. “We’re not perfect. But the clock is ticking. December 31 is around the corner.”
Sullivan said he believes Waste Management’s service has improved over the last 20 months. He acknowledged that Advanced Disposal, the village’s previous garbage collector, struggled with pickups due to truck breakdowns and other issues.
Sullivan said going with a smaller company could mean limited resources.
“The biggest resource we need is folks to come pick up the garage, get out of bed at 5 o’clock in the morning and be to work at 6 and work outside in the rain or 90-degree days,” Sullivan said. “And then of course the other thing is traffic. You all live here and know it better than anybody.”
But the village could also go out to bid for garbage collection and look at other interested companies. Brian Lindback is former owner and operator of Key Largo’s Atlantic Trash & Transfer. Since 2008, the company has provided roll-off dumpsters, large dumpster bags and porta potties. Recently, the Islamorada resident wrote to the village council members to express interest in bidding for garbage collection services in the village.
He said he recently sold his garbage hauling company in order to concentrate on running solid waste in the village. Glen Miller and Jim Wheatley, both Islamorada residents, would be Lindback’s partners. And Logan Malson, new owner of Atlantic Trash & Transfer, would also be a partner with his company serving as a component to the business.
“With what I have learned from owning and running Atlantic Trash & Transfer, and my desire to hire local employees, along with the extensive experience of my partners in the solid waste industry, I believe we will be a perfect fit to keep our solid waste operations local while highly qualified,” Lindback wrote.
During a discussion at the Feb. 9 meeting at Founders Park Community Center, Councilman Mark Gregg highlighted some of the issues surrounding garbage collection in the Keys. He said he attended a conference among Florida municipalities in Fort Lauderdale several months ago. Multiple municipal vendors, including garbage pickup companies, were on hand. When Gregg and Yates asked if they’d consider picking up trash in Islamorada, Gregg said “none would touch it” and that it was too expensive to haul trash from the Keys.
Gregg shared concerns with placing the village’s garbage collection out to bid. However, he wondered whether the village could negotiate with Waste Management while also putting the village’s garbage collection out to bid. Village Attorney John Quick told the council he wasn’t sure if that was possible.
“If they (Waste Management) don’t bid on this and no one else can handle it, we may be without a garbage carrier altogether,” Gregg said. “I’m just concerned we’ll put ourselves in a pickle if we don’t handle this carefully and openly.”
Malson, the new owner of Atlantic Trash & Transfer, told the council that his background includes automotive manufacturing and working with original equipment manufacturers. With that line of work, Malson acknowledged that missing shipments was never a good thing.
“It’s very similar with complaints about picking up trash,” he said. “The sincerity and levity of the issue is something we acknowledge. We hope we can work with you guys and provide a solution everyone is happy and proud of.”
In July 2021, the village council voted down a 7% commercial rate increase for trash pickup by Waste Management. The company received a contractually-obligated 3%. In August 2022, the dais voted 3-2 to increase the 2023 rate for trash pickup by 7.5% to address Waste Management’s rising labor and fuel costs. Waste Management originally sought a 16% increase in the rate.
A contract between Waste Management and Islamorada that ends Dec. 31, 2023 includes a 15% franchise fee that generates around $512,000 in annual revenue for the village.
Councilman Henry Rosenthal said he supports the idea of putting the service out to bid.
“If you were paying attention in the last 20 minutes, we were just propositioned to negotiation,” he said. “It just happened right in front of us. That’s what putting out to a bid creates, a competition.”
Mayor Buddy Pinder said he wants to avoid issues that Port St. Lucie residents saw with its trash and yard waste service. According to a March 2022 report by the Treasure Coast Newspapers, the city’s trash collector, Waste Pro, sent a letter acknowledging a breach of contract and a six-months notice that they’d be terminating service. It came after the company threatened to cancel its contract after the city didn’t pay back $1.2 million of the administrative charges the city withheld over the past three years for what it deemed poor service.
