Gulfport residents shocked to find garbage rates almost doubling with increased service
Garbage collection rates have almost doubled for Gulfport residents, with the first wave of new bills hitting mailboxes right in time for Christmas.
Gulfport decided in 2017 to negotiate its own contract, with city leaders saying they wanted better service. Previously, Harrison County and its five cities operated under one garbage contract through the Harrison County Utility Authority.
As the largest city, Gulfport left the other localities with a higher bill, a judge determined. Both Gulfport and HCUA recently negotiated new garbage contracts with different companies. Gulfport’s six-year garbage contract is with Waste Pro, while HCUA renewed service with Waste Management.
Both contracts have renewal options to run for up to 10 years and both include future cost increases.
Under the new contracts, Gulfport residents are now paying a total of $36 for collection of garbage, recyclables and rubbish left on the curb, while the Harrison County Utility Authority is charging customers far less — $23.41. The HCUA increase amounts to about 39%.
Gulfport posted information on its new rates and contract Friday afternoon.
Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes said Waste Pro was the lowest of three bidders for the city’s contract.
“Nobody likes increases of any sort,” he said. “But costs go up . . . It’s not that we’re picking arbitrary numbers out of the air.”
Is recycling worth cost for Gulfport?
Gulfport residents do get more service under the new contract: twice a week garbage collection as opposed to once weekly in the county and other cities. Also, recycling will now be collected weekly in Gulfport, as opposed to biweekly under the old contract.
For curbside rubbish and debris, the number of trucks for pickup has increased from three to 15. City leaders had been receiving complaints about unsightly debris piling up on roadsides.
“We’re already seeing a difference with our streets being a lot cleaner,” Hewes said.
Council members who opposed the contract, including Ella Holmes-Hines and Myles Sharp, said most residents don’t want or use the recycling service. The monthly recycling rate was around 25% when reported in a July meeting by Wayne Miller, then public works director and now chief administrative officer.
The Gulfport council approved the new garbage rate in November, when opponent Sharp said before the vote:
“I think we’ve gone out and we’ve bought a Cadillac plan of garbage that our constituency has clearly indicated that they’re not interested in . . . I just think going all in on recycling when our community has not bought into it is just a waste.”
The HCUA reported a weekly recycling rate of almost 43% in November. The previous and current Harrison County Utility Authority contract included weekly recycling in a can as opposed to the small bins Gulfport previously used. Gulfport’s new contract includes large cans for recycling.
Residents on fixed incomes will feel pinch
Gulfport council members Ron Roland and R.Lee Flowers, who voted in favor of the new contract, hope weekly service will encourage more residents to recycle. Roland said residents called him all the time under the old biweeky schedule because they were unsure which week to put out their recycling.
Resident John Neideffer of the Orange Grove community in Gulfport received his bill before Christmas. He is retired and living on a fixed income but can absorb the increase.
“It doesn’t hurt my budget,” he said, “but we’ve got people in this state who don’t even bring home $800 a month Social Security and those are the ones it’s going to hurt.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2023 at 4:10 PM.
