Program to test garbage pickups

Next month, Clark County and Republic Services plan to embark on a yearlong pilot program aimed at determining which of three recycling and trash collection schedules works best for Las Vegas Valley residents.

All of the schedules include a switch to using one bin for recyclables rather than three baskets for separate types of recyclables. Glass no longer would be accepted under the one-bin system.

County officials and Republic Services representatives plan to meet this month with 12 homeowners associations across Clark County that have expressed interest in participating in the pilot program. The meetings will hash out which schedule will be used in each neighborhood.

The three possibilities are once-a-week pickups of recyclables and trash, twice-a-week collection of trash and once-a-week pickups of recyclables, or garbage collection twice a week and pickup of recyclables every other week, which is the current schedule.

Spurred by their constituents' opposition to any talk of reducing trash collection to once a week, commissioners said they too are opposed to making that change.

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who lives in Boulder City, said residents have increased their recycling under a once-a-week collection of recyclables. Trash is still picked up twice a week.

"The general public does not want to go to once-a-week trash pickup," Woodbury said.

April Turner, a senior management analyst for the county, told commissioners that a yearlong program is necessary to determine how once-a-week garbage collection works during the holiday season, when more trash is generated, and during the summer months, when the smell is the worst.

"The pilot programs will serve as a fact-finding mechanism designed for the collection of data, the results of which will assist in the decision to implement an expanded or permanent recycling program," Turner said.

Proponents of the experiment hope to move Las Vegas Valley residents to a system that increases recycling.

In 1991, the Legislature set a goal for Nevada communities to recycle 25 percent of their trash, but Clark County has never met that goal.

When everyone is included in the calculation, Clark County is recycling about 18 percent of its trash, but only about 2 percent of Las Vegas Valley households take part in Republic Services' recycling program, according to county records.

Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said Republic Services should continue to pick up trash twice a week and increase the collection of recyclables to once a week. She said the county does not need a pilot program to prove that would be most popular.

"I know what we need to be doing, and I think we should just do it."

Giunchigliani pushed to switch to intermingling recyclables before the end of the pilot program.

But Bob Coyle, president of Republic Services, said the company's trucks are not suited to accept intermingled recycling. The cost of the bins with new vehicles would be significant.

"Who is going to pay for the cost of the recycling carts?" Coyle asked. "It is substantially more expensive than the three baskets."

Giunchigliani suggested that the county explore the cost to convert to the intermingling plan and look into how much money would be collected by recycling the plastic baskets.

Republic Services tried to launch a similar pilot program in 2005, but Coyle said he backed down when he was accused of lobbying for a once-a-week trash pickup to reduce costs.

"Republic Services is happy to provide whatever service you want," Coyle said. "I don't have a horse in the once-a-week garbage and once-a-week recycling race."