On March 23rd the Gwinnett BoC approved a new garbage plan. By doing so it also settled four pending lawsuits over the last failed garbage plan. Another lawsuit filed by Waste Industries in federal court last December is still pending. Now another lawsuit has been filed this week by Red Oak Sanitation citing restriction of competition.

The new garbage plan plan adopted by the BoC takes affect July 1st and will cost residents $17.81 per month. The fees will take the form of a charge on property tax bills supposedly to ensure total compliance by all residents.

Yard waste will cost an additional $10 per month and will be paid directly to the service provider. Sorry, no senior discounts provided in this plan.

It bears repeating, the pending lawsuits are going to be settled and the money is going to have to be paid for by tax dollars which means your actual cost per month is going to be far greater than the adopted amount. Also wave goodbye to free enterprise.

For all of those who say the new plan will clear the roads of haulers and reduce pollution, not only will the same amount of garbage need to be picked up, but because of the compliance mandate, there will be more garbage to pick up. Garbage trucks are not going to magically disappear and neither will their exhaust.

Is all of this really worth it?

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• Gwinnett Garbage News