The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday adopted new residential trash collection rates for 2022 that raise fees between 77 cents and more than $5 per quarter.

Starting Jan. 1, the new base fees will be:

  • $59.30 per quarter for small trash cart removal every other week.
  • $69.81 per quarter for small carts collected weekly — up 77 cents.
  • $96.56 for medium carts collected weekly — up $1.69.
  • $106.81 for large carts collected weekly — an increase of $5.58.

While the vote was unanimous and compelled no discussion among council members, trash talk in St. Paul has never been completely smooth sailing.

In 2017, the council approved a five-year contract with a consortium of private haulers, standardizing rates, pickup days and neighborhood assignments for properties from single-family homes to fourplexes. It was a big change in a city that for generations put property owners in charge of getting rid of their trash. The new system rolled out Oct. 1, 2018, and immediately thousands of residents objected.

More than 6,400 people signed a petition demanding the ordinance be put to a public vote, and voters in November 2019 opted to stick with organized collection.

Eric Lein, who owns 140 apartment units in St. Paul, said the city's rates continue to reward people who throw away a lot versus those who strive to reduce, reuse and recycle. A long-standing opponent of the organized trash collection system, Lein said property owners who produce the smallest amount of trash are subsidizing big dumpers.

His own preference, he said, would be lower rates across the board, except for those with the largest carts. Those customers would pay nearly $18 more per quarter — again based on a standard rate of $5.56 per 1,000 gallons of waste per month.

Lein said the city told him it was too late to make changes to the agreed-upon rates. In addition, officials have said that haulers base their rates on a number of factors, including equipment costs, and rates are more complicated than just setting a per-gallon fee.

"I guess I look at it from a different perspective than the business that drives the trucks," Lein said.