- April 25, 2024
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Palm Coast residents pay $20.36 a month for twice-weekly garbage pickup and once a week recycling service from Waste Pro, the trash hauling company the city has contracted with for about 15 years.
Those rates are likely to go up: Waste Pro’s contract expires in 2022, and when the city government solicited bids for a new contact, both Waste Pro and the one other company that submitted a bid quoted prices that are considerably higher than the current ones.
Waste Pro’s was the lower of the two. For service equivalent to what it’s providing now, Waste Pro is asking for $26.47. The other company that submitted a bid, FCC Environmental Services, is asking even more — $33.84 — for the same service.
Both companies also quoted prices for three other service levels, including once-weekly pickup, but even the once-a-week rates are a few dollars a month more than Palm Coast residents pay now (see the sidebar at left for all of them).
Palm Coast has been less than satisfied with Waste Pro, repeatedly fining the waste hauler in recent years for breaching its contract by missing pickups or arriving late.
The city fined Waste Pro $4,280 in 2020 and $43,385 in 2019. So far this year, it has fined Waste Pro $50,280, according to city records.
In April, after conducting a resident survey on trash pickup preferences, the city issued a news release chastising Waste Pro for its missed pickups, advising residents to call City Hall’s customer service number or submit a complaint on Palm Coast Connect if Waste Pro missed their pickup, and stating that the city was seeking out alternative haulers to assist in case Waste Pro didn’t meet its obligations.
The city went out to bid in May, with city staff warning of a potential cost increase.
