Kristin Becker, who lives in St. Paul’s Frogtown, maintains the amount of trash she and her family produce in a month fills a snack-size potato chip bag — “sometimes more, sometimes less, depending upon what’s going on.”

Becker, a co-founder of the Facebook group St. Paul CARTless, objects to being forced by new city regulations to lease a trash cart. She and her peers have met with the mayor’s office to encourage them to rethink their approach toward organized trash collection, which no longer allows opt-outs or sharing between neighbors.

The result, she feels, undermines rather than promotes the city’s recycling efforts. At first, “they thought us ‘zero-wasters’ were a fringe group,” said Becker. “(But) there’s a lot of places you can recycle items that aren’t typically accepted by recycling.”

Not all “zero-wasters” agree with her — some see organized trash collection as a positive first step toward curbside composting.

But when it comes to facing off against the new citywide plan, St. Paul CARTless has some friendly competition. A related effort, StPaulTrash.com, aims to dump organized trash collection before it starts through a public referendum.

Then there’s a lawsuit by financial analyst Peter Butler, who seeks to rewrite pricing for residential trash collection to create deeper incentives for recycling.

Nearly 74,000 garbage carts are already rolling out onto sidewalks and alleys citywide, but these last-ditch efforts aim to stop — or at least tweak — the city of St. Paul’s plans to launch organized trash collection this fall.

Through a contract painstakingly negotiated by St. Paul Public Works with a consortium of more than a dozen private haulers, the city of St. Paul on Oct. 1 plans to begin trash collection at homes and apartment buildings of four units or less. Haulers have effectively divvied the city up among themselves, with each hauler assigned to specific streets that are now posted online at stpaul.gov/garbagemap (or available by calling 651-266-6101).

The goal is to cut down on the number of trucks per route, create stable, uniform rates citywide and ensure that everyone has trash collection — a boon for areas prone to illegal dumping.

The opposition is heading to court.

On Monday, Butler will appear in Ramsey County District Court to defend his recent lawsuit against the city. Butler claims the city’s contract reduces recycling incentives by offering residents large carts at a cheaper price per gallon than small ones — an alleged violation of state law around waste management pricing.

Meanwhile, arguments in favor of “zero-wasters” and cart-sharing have struck a chord with some city council members — even with the city council president.

“The council is hearing from constituents,” said City Council President Amy Brendmoen. “We hear their concerns, we share their concerns, and we are frustrated, too.”

STPAULTRASH.COM AND CARTLESS

Alisa Lein is one of the landlords behind StPaulTrash.com, a community coalition gathering signatures on two petitions to block organized trash collection. She has said she’s not against the principle of cutting down on the number of garbage trucks per alley, but she objects to being forced to provide a separate cart for each household.

Tenants at her family’s Grand Hill duplex have traditionally shared a single large cart without a problem. Now each of the three apartments will get a separate cart — an increased monthly cost they’ll have to shoulder through higher rents.

Lein, who said she has 1,200 petition signatures to date, is hoping to force a public referendum. A ballot question would ask voters to repeal two city ordinances associated with organized trash collection. She needs about 5,000 valid signatures in total. Related Articles St. Paul district to wait on reopening schools, citing lack of staff

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“It literally is a yes/no vote — ‘Do you like (the new city rules) as they are currently written, and are happy with that, or do you not?'” said Lein, noting even many fans of the concept of organized trash collection have taken issue with the planned execution. “Me, personally, I am in favor of organized trash. However, I am not a fan of the fact that multi-family (renters) cannot share a cart within the same structure, or if you’re a low-waste person you can’t share with your neighbor. I do like the fact that there will be less traffic in the alley.”

The StPaulTrash.com website states: “There is no right to opt-out, not even for the ‘low wasters’ and ‘zero-wasters’ who recycle most or all of their waste. In addition to higher monthly trash service rates, property owners will be assessed a new yearly (administrative fee) to be paid to the city to finance the cost for administering its new trash collection program.”

For the first year, the new annual administrative fee will be $24.60 per residential unit. The yearly rate will be $49.20 for duplexes, $73.80 for three units and $98.40 for four units.

ZERO-WASTERS ARE DIVIDED

Lyn Rhodes, who lives in, owns and manages a four-plex apartment building in Merriam Park, was taken aback by the four trash carts now permanently parked on the side of her building (she has no back alley). She and her tenants are accustomed to sharing one. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s “big thing is affordable housing,” Rhodes noted. “I’m going to have to pass the cost along to my tenants. I can’t absorb the cost forever. Don’t make me increase rents for unneeded services!”

Becker, of St. Paul CARTless (“Community Action to Reduce Trash”), said that beyond being unsightly, the small wall of garbage carts that are popping up in front of three-unit and four-unit apartment buildings could be a public safety concern. “I’ve got a duplex next to me and a couple houses down is a four-plex,” Becker said. “There’s just no room in the alley for us to be doubling the number of carts we have back there.”

Despite the concerns, some “zero-wasters” are fully on board with the city’s plans for organized trash collection as it stands, and they worry that the two petitions will kill rather than tweak the city’s contracts.

“The only way we can get to curbside composting and actual waste reduction is through organized trash collection,” said Kristina Mattson of Highland Park, a co-founder of the advocacy group Zero Waste St. Paul.

Russ Stark, Carter’s chief resilience officer, noted that the city’s contract with the consortium of more than a dozen private haulers was signed last fall. Technically, the contract runs for five years, and any changes aren’t expected until 2023 — unless both sides comes to the table to renegotiate.

“The one cart per unit issue was identified in the contract, so at least for the time being, it’s settled,” Stark said. “It’s a brand new city system. It’s certainly possible that both the city and the consortium of haulers would at some point want to renegotiate some of the details.”

Stark added, “We’ve certainly gotten a lot of feedback from the small, multi-unit building owners about the requirements of each unit having a separate cart. (But) there’s no guarantee that we can make any changes until the end of the five-year contract.”

THE BUTLER LAWSUIT

Butler, a resident of the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood, said he was taken aback to discover that a 35-gallon cart every other week costs property owners $20.28 per month, while a 95-gallon cart collected every week is $34.15.

When he crunched the numbers, he found that the leanest service option costs $9.36 per collection, or 27 cents per gallon, while the 95-gallon cart costs $7.88 per collection, or 8 cents per gallon.

In other words, the more trash you make, the less you’ll pay per gallon. His suit contends that the city is effectively penalizing people who try to reduce their trash, a violation of state laws around waste management pricing and a general impediment to state efforts to reduce waste.

The city has raised legal questions over Butler’s interpretation of state statute and whether he’s personally and negatively impacted by the pricing.

“The city’s position is that I have no standing to sue over this statute,” Butler said. Judge Thomas Gilligan will review the issue at 10 a.m. Aug. 27 at the Ramsey County District Courthouse in downtown St. Paul.

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With new shops and street improvements, Saturday’s ‘Rice and LarpenTOUR’ showcases three cities Stark, the mayor’s resilience officer, urged patience as residents adjust to a new citywide system and any initial kinks are ironed out.

“We understand there’s some concerns about the new program, although overall as far as the roll-out so far, the information that people have communicated back to us, the large majority of residents are ready for the change,” Stark said. “We believe we’re going to have a great new system.”