Portage residents to vote May 5 on who hauls their trash away

Portage residents will decide in a May 5 election whether to restore their competitive market for trash service. The vote could undo the city government’s decision to make Waste Management Portage’s only trash-hauling service.

The Portage City Council voted last year to eliminate an open-market system in which residents could choose which company picks up their trash, a decision that has been in effect since March 2. In response, more than 4,000 Portage residents signed a petition to place a question on the ballot: Should residents be able to choose which company takes their trash?

A “no” vote would keep the city’s single-hauler system. A “yes” vote would approve a system of multiple haulers for services such as trash and recycling, Mary Beth Block, the city of Portage’s public information officer, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email.

“This is the first ballot initiative in the city of Portage concerning what entity picks up trash,” Block said. “However, in the 1990s, the city proposed a new millage to operate a curbside recycling program with a single-hauler contract, which was approved by Portage voters. That millage funds the curbside recycling program today.”

Portage awarded a five-year, $29 million contract to Waste Management, based in Houston, Texas. The company submitted the lowest bid to pick up garbage, recycling, and yard waste, according to the city website.

Best Way Disposal, another company, had gained about 71% of the market share after about 30 years of work, according to Chris Phillips, a manager at the company.

City officials took about 11,000 customers in Portage from a family-owned company based in Kalamazoo County and gave them to a company based in Texas, Phillips said.

“We’ve been here since our inception as a company,” Phillips told CapCon in a phone interview. “We earned that 71% of customers through hard work and loyalty to provide service.”

Best Way Disposal created a petition and obtained over 4,000 signatures in less than 90 days to place the question on the ballot.

“What it comes down to: People wanted to be heard,” Phillips said. “Their ability to choose and make a decision for themselves was taken away without the city giving them their opportunity to vote on it.”

Polling places will be open May 5 from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.