Commission member reports chaotic haulers meeting, urges council to require recycling pickups match trash

A member of the Mount Vernon Utilities Commission reported at the March 5 meeting that a recent meeting with solid-waste haulers was "a little chaotic" and that, while most haulers appear to comply, a few outliers do not collect recyclables as frequently as trash.

"I think in general, the haulers that we have want to do a good job. There's a couple outliers that, we just need to clean a few things up," the commission member said, and suggested the commission ask council to adopt a requirement that recycling be picked up at the same frequency as trash.

The member said the suggested requirement should apply even if the city pursues aggregation of service, noting that smaller independent haulers might otherwise not be required to match recycling frequency. Commissioners discussed cleaning up ordinance verbiage to ensure consistent service across haulers and were asked to send suggested edits in the coming weeks.

No formal council action was taken at the meeting; the recommendation is to prepare draft ordinance language for council consideration and to place any ordinance edits on a future agenda for the commission and council to review.