The St. Paul City Council recently tweaked technical language surrounding recycling services for 2023 to include larger apartment buildings within the new collection rates, which have doubled.
The recycling service fees will be set at $129.41 per unit in residential buildings with one to 11 units, including condominiums, instead of buildings with one to four units, as previously announced.
The rates will be $65.69 per unit in residential buildings with 12 or more units.
The latter prices are more than double what St. Paul homeowners are accustomed to paying under the city’s existing five-year contract with Eureka Recycling, which was extended this year for 12 months.
Eureka was the only company to respond to the city’s recent request for proposals, which was issued twice. Company officials have noted that recycling collection rates are set by the city, not by Eureka, though those rates are heavily influenced by their bid.
The city will spend the next several months negotiating a new five-year contract with Eureka, which could alter rates before the end of 2023.
“It’s not what the city pays us,” said Lynn Hoffman, a co-president of Eureka Recycling, in a recent interview. “I was glad to see the city planning for large increases. The prices were set for this contract seven years ago, and everything has increased since then — labor, truck parts, you name it. I don’t know how they got to that number, but acknowledging how the market has changed is realistic and encouraging.”
