Jun 10, 2015 By David Singer 2 min read

After nearly two dozen Mt. Lebanon residents rallied in favor of a pay-as-you-throw garbage collection system at the June 9 commissioners meeting, the board voted they would try to have one in place by 2019. Residents would pay for what they throw away instead of a flat rate. Critics said a flat rate encourages waste and discourages recycling, which would remain free. The demonstrators were hoping to have a vote to change service type with current refuse collector Republic Services before a July 1 contract deadline that requires the municipality to instruct Republic whether to keep billing per household or start charging by the ton.

Commissioners unanimously approved a vote saying they would consider pay-as-you-throw proposals in their next service contract bid, and would do so sooner than 2019 if they got their proverbial ducks in a row, but that they would not hold themselves or municipal staff to a closer deadline because of concerns dealing with public outreach. A proposal to roll out pay-as-you-throw by July 2016, which manager Steve Feller said would be “extremely ambitious,” moved the board to reconsider a longer study period.

Republic Services manager John McGoran said to make pay-as-you-throw viable for the company, recycling pickup would have to increase to weekly pickup.

“We’ve seen the value of recyclable materials fall by 80 percent over the past two years,” he said, “so that needs to change for us to consider it.”

McGoran also said that many factors weren’t addressed in the initial request for proposal documents, like yard waste and bulk items, which the board said they would have to investigate before rolling out any proposal for the public to comment on.