City leaders are talking trash this week, and agreed with starting the process to look at Omaha’s trash collection.
The Mayor has said that the current system is outdated and needs to be reevaluated.
“We are looking at essentially more of a modernized system,” said Public Works Director Bob Stubbe.
He said this evaluation will look at the city's trash, recycle, and yard waste collection and how it’s working.
Currently the City of Omaha pays just under $20 million year for their services. They also have a contract with Waste Management.
City council members agree that the study of the trash program needs to happen.
“This does not mean we are going to make a change, this is going to say hey, look at what is out there and let's make an educated decision,” said council member Rich Pahls.
He added with this evaluation they are going to take in to account what the public wants, “there will be an awful lot of public input, that's the part I like.”
Right now the city is looking for a consultant who will then meet with members of city council before any study begins, and then it will be several more months before a study in complete.
“We are looking at five to six months before we would have a study in our hand that would be completed by the consultant,” said Stubbe.
One of the big focuses of the study: the cost, and what that means for customer's bills.
“Let’s say this contract goes to 2020, that we are currently in, we know it is going to go up, we know that as a fact,” said Pahls.
“We want to be able to at least when we develop that new proposal, have enough information so that we can provide that to the public and they have an understanding to what we are doing and what that cost us,” said Stubbe.
Stubbe said the cost of the study should be less than $100,000.
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