Ada County switches trash haulers for rural residents. Here’s what it means
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Trash Troubles
Trash Troubles is a 2024 Idaho Statesman series on trash and recycling in the Treasure Valley. Inside are all nine stories in the series, plus three previous Statesman stories on the topic.
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About 20,000 households in Ada County will see their trash pick-up services change come Oct. 1.
Hardin Sanitation, based in Payette, will begin its recycling and waste hauling services in October in unincorporated parts of Ada County.
“The decision for Hardin to replace Republic Services occurred when the contract expired and the county went out for RFP (public bid/request for proposals) and Hardin’s final score was higher,” Ada County Commission Chairwoman Kendra Kenyon said in an email statement to the Statesman.
The deciding factor between Republic Services, the previous provider, and Hardin Sanitation was the price of the contract, Kenyon said. The change to Hardin will save taxpayers approximately $6 million over the term of the 10-year contract.
The rate customers in unincorporated Ada County pay for trash service will remain the same at $19.58 per month. Elizabeth Duncan, Ada County communications manager, said if the county had gone with Republic’s proposal, the rate would have increased $2.67 per month.
Hardin has been providing waste collection services in Idaho since 1955, and it is the trash service provider in Payette and Washington and Canyon counties. It will offer the same types of services to customers in Ada County that they had under Republic. Ada County will continue to bill for the services directly.
“Hardin has a reputation for being a leader as an environmental services company, and has many years of experience with recycling a significant portion of the waste stream with diversion rates in some markets in excess of 70%,” Kenyon said.
Hardin is owned by Waste Connections, headquarted in Ontario, Canada. The parent company, the third-largest trash hauler in the U.S., is expected to announce next week quarterly revenues of $1.4 billion, up 9.7% from the same quarter a year ago, according to Nasdaq.
Hardin will deliver orange bags for hard-to-recycle plastics when they deliver the new trash cans to customers.
Services in cities where Republic had individual contracts will not change.
This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 1:11 PM.
