Truth or Consequences just upped their trash rates July 1, but only for tipping fees at the collection center (see map above) and for commercial dumpster customers.
Even though residential and commercial poly-cart customers’ fees didn’t go up, they are still ridiculously high. Residents pay nearly $35 a month and commercial customers pay $50 a month.
A quick google search showed the following for poly-cart (Polycart is a brand name) services in New Mexico:
Lincoln County: Polycart Service: 1 costs $26.67/monthly, according to the County of Lincoln (NM) (.gov) website.
- Santa Fe: The cost of basic residential curbside service is $23.10 per month with tax, and is included in the City of Santa Fe monthly utility bill.
- Bernalillo County (unincorporated areas): The monthly cost for one trash and one recycle cart is $18.72, a 6% increase effective July 1, 2023.
- Los Alamos County: The monthly service charge for residential service with one pickup per week is $29.25.
- Rio Rancho: One source from 2018 states that the cost of trash collection in Rio Rancho, New Mexico was $16.70 per month.
I did a thorough rate comparison in 2021, which you can find here: https://sierracountysun.org/government/t-or-c/solid-waste-rate-comparison-among-cities-similar-in-size-and-isolation-to-t-or-c/
As I have been pointing out for years, poly-cart customers are being exploited. See:
https://sierracountysun.org/government/t-or-c/torc-recycling-program-is-mostly-a-sham/
https://sierracountycitizen.org/solid-waste-rate-study-proves-polycart-customers-overpaid/
https://sierracountycitizen.org/trash-rates-are-going-up-will-they-be-fair/
The city gets away with it because polycart customers, by law, must use the city’s trash services.Commercial dumpster customers are included in this law, but the city has not exploited these customers. By that I mean that they are not charging the customer more for that service than it costs the city to deliver that service–they are under-charging them. See the city ordinance here: https://library.municode.com/nm/truth_or_consequences/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_CH11SOWAMA_ARTIINGE_S11-14RECOPORTDU)
Those taking their trash to the collection center have been paying unbelievably cheap rates–$60 a ton since 2013, when the facility opened. That’s about half what it costs the city to send it to the South Central Solid Waste Authority’s landfill in Las Cruces. Those rates went up to $90 a ton July 1, but that still won’t cover the city’s costs, so poly-cart customers will continue to subsidize this service.
The city hired NextGen/Parkhill to do a solid waste rate study in 2023, which took a year. It was delivered to the public at the city commission’s Feb. 28, 2024 meeting. Here is a link to that city packet. The study runs from page 74 to 111: https://cms5.revize.com/revize/truthconsequencesnew/Documents/City%20Commission/2-28-24%20CC%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf
On page 103, the chart shows that the poly-cart customers are subsidizing recycling, the collection center and dumpster customers. They are being forced, untransparently, to give their hard earned dollars, their charity, to construction companies and businesses. They are forced to carry the incredibly expensive recycling program.
Look at the FY28 column on page 103. Poly-cart customers will have overpaid about $2.5 million, while the dumpster service will be minus -$912,000 and the collection center will be minus -$1.442 million. So the poly-cart customers’ over-pay will cover the dumpster and collection center losses.
The Parkhill study didn’t result in rates that are fair or equitable, although it did expose the inequities. Governments are required, by the constitution, to treat their citizens equally. Why are city poly-cart customers being exploited?
What is really infuriating is Parkhill assigning all the cost of the collection center’s recycling to poly-cart customers, simply adding it to their bill. The recycling costs between $237,000 and $252,000 a year.
The city only makes between $17,000 and $27,000 a year on recycling revenues. It’s never taken recycling seriously and has never kept records on how much tonnage is collected and actually removed from the trash stream. Parkhill doesn’t reveal tonnage figures either, but most of the collected recycling must be going into South Central Solid Waste Authority trucks considering that it costs about $250,000 a year. That’s fake recycling, which is expensive virtue signalling–but only for poly-cart customers. If the city is going to charge these customers for fake recycling, it should at least keep records of tonnage collected, tonnage that goes into the trucks and tonnage that is truly recycled. I have attended most of the city meetings for 6.5 years and there has never been a recycling report.
The city–and Parkhill–know poly-cart customers can’t refuse to pay without facing duns and liens and cut-off electric and other services. The commercial dumpster customers evidently carry more weight and respect with city leaders. And those going to the collection center, such as the construction companies that have standing accounts, could go elsewhere, so they must be coddled. It is wrong for the city to pick favorites and losers.
To make matters worse, the city commission approved a nearly $300,000 truck purchase to service the commercial dumpster customers at the August 13 meeting.
Of course the money will come from poly-cart customers.
To correct this unjust course:
The city should consider eliminating its recycling service or it should charge the recyclers. I have lived in cities that required residents to recycle and to pay a fee for that service. Those city governments also gave quarterly recycling reports at public city council meetings.
The city should raise commercial dumpster and tipping fee rates at the collection center to cover those costs.
The city should make it a top priority to apply for a construction and demolition landfill permit to reduce the waste-stream tonnage being trucked to the South Central Solid Waste Authority facility in Las Cruces.
The city should open a free green waste yard to reduce the waste-stream tonnage.
The city should remember that utility fees–trash, water, sewer, electric–are regressive taxes–they hit the poor and average person hardest. T or C has a 35 percent poverty rate, according to datausa. https://datausa.io/profile/geo/truth-or-consequences-nm/
Thank you for the investigative hard work, the inform and sound recommendations for improvement
Why don’t they go back to the dumpster in the alley, makes more sense then poly cart..or collecting in alley. As it is now they have to go up and down each road twice which use more gas,