The Columbia City Council unanimously voted Monday to end the controversial roll cart pilot program, reversing its decision on Sept. 18.
This vote effectively ended the program Fourth Ward Councilman Daryl Dudley said was the most divisive issue he’s faced since joining City Council. The proposed roll cart pilot program would test how the proposed overhaul of the trash system would work.
The new roll cart system would require residents to buy wheeled carts to replace existing trash cans. The city would buy new trucks that could automatically empty the roll carts. The proposal would have cost Columbia about $5 million, but city officials said the costs would have been offset by money saved from decreased workers’ compensation and increased efficiency.
The refuse collectors would no longer be lifting the garbage into the truck, which would reduce injuries and workers’ compensation. In 2003, one refuse worker was killed while on the job.
The roll cart program would save the average household between 88 cents and $2.04 a month, Solid Waste Utility manager Richard Wieman said. The roll cart program would charge prices based on how much trash a household uses instead of the flat rate the city currently uses. The roll cart program would be more fair, he said.
“In the world of utilities, if I use more water, I pay more,” Wieman said. “If I use more electricity, I pay more. If I have more trash, should I not pay more?”
Despite these potential benefits, residents like Richard Shanker fought the roll cart program. He said he lived in a city with a roll cart system, and it just wasn’t as convenient as the current system Columbia uses.
Residents such as Shanker were the reason Mayor Bob McDavid moved to end the pilot program.
“People are satisfied with what they have,” he said. “They’re satisfied with what they’re paying, and they’re opposed to change. This may be a community that is simply not ready for this.”
Other council members cited negative feedback from their constituents as reasons for voting against the program. Second Ward Councilman Michael Trapp was initially in favor of the program because he felt this system could help keep the refuse worker safer, but resistance from residents swayed his vote.
“It’s been overwhelming,” Fifth Ward Councilwoman Helen Anthony said. “I just don’t believe people are needing or wanting to change the trash system.”
This vote put an end to any change in the trash system in the foreseeable future. But the roll cart system isn’t entirely dead — City Council could bring the issue back up in a couple of years when there is more research and a better effort to educate the public about the potential benefits, McDavid said.