Curbside recycling comes to Hudson Oaks

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May 16, 2011

Curbside recycling comes to Hudson Oaks

Judy Sheridan CNHI The Weatherford Democrat Mon May 16, 2011, 08:00 AM CDT

HUDSON OAKS — Judy Sheridan

jsheridan@weatherforddemocrat.com

The City of Hudson Oaks has begun offering weekly curbside recycling services to residents, City Administrator Sheri Campbell-Husband announced recently.

The new service will increase the residential monthly collection rate by 46 cents per month, from $13.82 to $14.28, for all the city’s residential solid waste customers, regardless of participation.

The fee increase will also pay for twice weekly collection of two cubic yards of cut and bundled brush and bulky waste, doubling the amount that could be disposed of previously, but eliminating the monthly Saturday pickups for unbundled brush.

Unbundled brush and bulky items will be handled through semi-annual clean-up events from now on, Campbell-Husband said, with a $3.33 charge added to all trash bills in the months the events are held.

The first clean-up event will probably be scheduled this fall, she said.

The new services will be funded entirely by the fees that residents pay, Campbell-Husband said, with no additional funds from the city.

She attributed the low cost of the program to the bargaining power of the six East Parker County cities, who negotiated with the vendor, Republic Services, as one entity.

“We were able to get economies of scale,” she explained. “Not all the cities are choosing to add this, but they all have the choice to add it in.”

Campbell-Husband credited the mayors of the six cities for initiating the new program, saying that city leaders have long discussed the need to regionalize some services.

The collaboration went more smoothly than anticipated, she said, perhaps because the cities selected a three member team and a single attorney to conduct the negotiations.

Residents have been asking for curbside recycling for the past three or four years, Campbell-Husband said, and one of the program’s features makes it especially convenient.

That feature is called single streaming, which means putting all the recyclables in the carts together, with no separation.

“We think our participation rate is going to be high,” she said.

For more information on the program go online at www.hudsonoaks.com or call city hall at 682-229-2400 or Republic Services at 800-644-3961.