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Same Song, New Verse... Oh Garbage, some more.

By Lane Bailey

Real Estate Agent with Century 21 Results Realty GA RE Lic # 282060

March 25, 2010 02:05 AM

Image by lane.bailey via Flickr

I am getting to the point where I wonder if this saga will ever end... Let's get up to speed...

Gwinnett County contracted with Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful for a new waste management plan. The plan was going to increase recycling, reduce the number of garbage trucks on the streets, slightly lower bills (for many) and require that all residences have garbage collection.
The plan was going to go into effect on January 1st, 2009. There were two selected garbage haulers, of the nine licensed to operate in the county. Several of the other haulers filed suit.
In late December of 2008, a judge suspended the waste management plan...
Fast forward to March 2nd. The County Board of Commissioners approved a modified plan...
On March 23rd, the Commissioners announced that the new plan would take effect on July 1st, and that four lawsuits had been settled, avoiding $80m in damages that the haulers were seeking.
On March 24th, Red Oak Sanitation in Gainesville filed suit... It has 3500 customers in Gwinnett County.

There are a lot of other little tidbits. And there is another lawsuit still pending.

In case you are wondering. the plan only affects households in unincorporated Gwinnett County, GA. Residences inside the city limits of cities in Gwinnett County aren't subject to the new plan. They operate under the plans of the individual cities.

I guess we'll see. There is plenty of time for the plan to be derailed again. Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful is out of the picture. They had been running the recycling center, and the county took it away from them last year. They were the drivers of the big increase in recycling capacity.