Price Residents Pay For Trash Pickup Expected To Drop

County residents should save on their trash bills next year as a result of new waste-hauling bids that opened on Monday, Solid Waste Authority officials say.

The bids on the new five-year contract, which will begin Oct. 1, were much lower than the existing ones.

``The reductions are in some cases substantial, 24 to 45 percent,`` said Don Lockhart, the Authority`s executive director. ``Initially, the residents seem to be well-served.``

Members of the Authority`s Citizens` Advisory Committee were ecstatic.

``The citizens of Palm Beach County were big winners,`` said committee member Harold Ostrow of Delray Beach. ``The bids were about 40 percent less than we could have negotiated.``

All five of the companies that haul trash in Palm Beach County won new contracts, as did one new company.

Waste Management Inc. will continue to be the largest hauler in the county, but its market share will drop from 53 percent to 41 percent. New rules forbid any company from controlling more than half the market.

A dozen companies bid for the right to collect garbage in the county`s 10 new trash-hauling districts. Waste Management won in four of those districts, County Sanitation in two, and South Florida Sanitation, D&V Carting, Sunburst Sanitation and Boone Waste in one district each.

The Authority has been writing rules for the new bids since last summer, but the process has not been an easy one. Three of the haulers sued the Authority two weeks ago to stop the bidding, saying some of the rules were too vague. A judge turned them down. All three -- South Florida, D&V, and Sunburst -- won contracts.

But Steve Robbins, Sunburst Sanitation`s attorney, said the lawsuit was not over. He said the bids were not final until county commissioners, acting as the Authority`s board, accept them.

``Absolutely no bids have been awarded as yet,`` he said. ``This is just the starting point, not the ending point.``