Cd'A Garbage recycling subscription sees surprising spike

Shelley Anderson spent part of her Friday beside an ever-filling hole on Ramsey Road, emptying out a Subaru full of trash with help from one of her three roommates.

“Not how I expected to spend today,” the Rathdrum resident and student at North Idaho College said, standing beside ‘Z-Wall,’ an open-air garbage bin at the Kootenai County waste transfer station, as she tossed another bag into the giant waste bins below. “But what are you going to do?”

Anderson said she drew the short end of the stick between her housemates in their inaugural dump run once they decided to cancel their Couer d’Alene Garbage Service recycling subscription, this after she said their address saw what she described as a hefty increase in their quarterly bill.

“We head this way every day anyways,” Anderson said, “so we decided, ‘You know what? We’ll do it ourselves.’”

What has long been one of the lowest and most predictable quarterly bills in the area just became surprisingly more expensive for residents outside the cities of Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, as subscription services in outlying areas jumped from $30 to $48, according to Coeur d’Alene Garbage’s general manager Mark Hinders, marking the first time in nearly 11 years the subscription rate rose. The price hike comes as the industry is seeing market-wide challenges with handling and disposing of recycling.

In a statement, Coeur d’Alene Garbage owner Phil Damiano said he remained hopeful the market would eventually correct itself.

“Pricing is set by competition and market rates, among other factors,” Damiano said. “CDA Garbage has always prided ourselves on being super competitive in our pricing strategy, along with providing a high level of customer service. These cornerstone commitments in our business model have allowed us to grow and not only stay in business but become the largest garbage contractor in Kootenai County.”

The rate change as the result of a larger problem impacting the global recycling network, as China all but halted recyclable imports in 2018. The near-ban has forced municipalities and their partners across the country to either hike up prices or stop recycling programs altogether.

“Of concern to some of our subscription customers is the significant rate increase in single stream recycling services,” Damiano said. “This increase is based on market conditions that are simply out of our control. China is no longer accepting shipments of recyclables because of contamination, and domestic markets have encountered the same contamination issues and been slow to develop.”

More than one area resident has reached out to The Press to inquire about the hikes, with one local saying his quarterly invoice skyrocketed from $38.25 in July to last week’s bill of $85.95. Multiple residents have told The Press that, like Anderson, they were canceling their service.

“I know it’s still pretty cheap,” Anderson said as she heaved the last bag over her shoulder and headed for the ‘Z-Wall,’ “but these days, we need to save every last dollar we have.”