Trash rates will be going up when recycling ends for a majority of Villagers.
The North Sumter County Utility Dependent District Board on Thursday unanimously voted to approve a contract with Covanta, a company that converts waste to energy.
The contract will raise the current waste pickup charge from $19.38 to $22.24 per month, representing a 14.75 percent increase. The increase will take effect Oct. 1 and then increase 3.25 percent annually for the following nine years.
The NSCUDD Board represents nearly 54,000 homes in Community Development Districts 1 through 11.
The Villages’ $692,000 monthly contract with Covanta means Villagers’ trash will account for 30 percent of the disposables which will wind up at the company’s Lake County waste-to-energy plant. You can see the Covanta contract with The Villages at this link: Covanta_Contract
Items that previously were sorted as “recyclables” will be co-mingled with garbage.
James Buettner of the Village of Dunedin told the NSCUDD board she predicted this will come as a shock to Villagers.
“A lot of people are going to be unhappy with changing recycling, something they have been doing for 40 years,” Buettner said.
He complained there should have been more media coverage, particularly by The Villages Daily Sun.
The new contract includes $70,000 for “marketing” the trash collection changes that will take place in October.
