NATCHEZ, Miss. – Mayor Dan Gibson has asked aldermen to consider various alternatives for collecting and disposing Natchez trash.
He said options to consider will include once-a-week pickups. The city’s garbage collector – Arrow Disposal Service – currently hauls away residents’ household trash twice a week. Recyclables are collected separately once a week.
“We can price it and get alternate bids to see if it would save the city money to go once a week versus twice a week,” Gibson said.
A comprehensive review of how Natchez residents’ garbage is collected and where it goes comes as expirations are approaching for the contracts with Arrow and the city’s waste dump operator.
Natchez trash is carried to nearby Jefferson County to be buried at the Green Meadow landfill on U.S. 61. The city’s disposal contract with the landfill operator expires in May.
The city’s contract with Arrow for garbage collection doesn’t expire until May 2024, but Gibson said the city can seek proposals now from waste companies interested in bidding to serve Natchez.
The mayor and Board of Aldermen discussed garbage at their Tuesday meeting. They’re planning to have waste collection and disposal proposals to review in April when they meet again.
Natchez residents pay $22.17 a month per household for their three-times-a-week trash collection (one day for recyclables) by Arrow. The monthly price increased by nearly $5 when Arrow got the trash-collection contract in 2018 to replace Waste Pro.
Gibson has pondered various options to reduce costs. He’s said that could include the city joining Adams County to hire a trash hauler, or local government could create its own garbage collection department like what Vidalia, La., has.
The Adams County Board of Supervisors is trying to finalize a trash-collecting contract with United Infrastructure Services for residents outside Natchez. The county board voted 3-2 in early March to hire the New Orleans-based company, which has a proposed price of $26.66 a month per household for twice-a-week residential pickups. That’s up from the $19 now charged to the county for the same service.
While the final contract with United is being worked out, it remains uncertain how much county residents will actually pay for having their trash picked up. They’re currently charged $15 a month.
The city and county plan to place special dumpsters in various locations temporarily next month for residents to dispose large household items and hazardous materials that garbage collectors won’t pick up when they make their regular rounds. This is the community clean-up activities that go with the annual Earth Day on April 22. More information about this is forthcoming.
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