Dive Brief:

• The Columbia City Council in Missouri will give residents 120 days to file a petition before it considers changing the trash collection system. Residents currently place plastic bags at the curb, but the Public Works Department has recommended the city purchase trash trucks and roll carts for automated trash collection.  
• The petition being circulated by the Solid Waste Advocacy Group (SWAG) aims to ban the measure. If the measure makes it to the council and is voted down, the roll cart question would likely appear on the April ballot. 
• Buying carts would cost $1.8 million over five years, according to the Public Works report. However, calculating savings from less worker training, fewer workers’ compensation claims, and no longer supplying black trash bags for residents, Public Works estimates an automated system would eventually save the city $2.8 million over 10 years.

Dive Insight:

It will take 2,567 signatures for the petition to be valid. SWAG argued that the Public Works report did not accurately analyze opposition to the plan at ward meetings, and the group wants its side to be heard. "We would just like that discussion to happen," SWAG member Mary Sapp told the Daily Tribune.

Mayor Bob McDavid said a vote would be a show of "how democracy works." All residents are entitled to be heard, and opponents have the chance to sign the petition. 

But the opposition to an automated system that will save money is curious. Resident Michael Byrne said when he moved to Columbia, he was surprised to find that residents throw black bags on the curb. 

Jill Raitt, 84, told the Daily Tribune that she used a roll cart when she lived in St. Louis before moving to Columbia 10 years ago. "They’re beautifully balanced," Raitt said. "I could move one with two fingers."