Trash is not exactly a sexy topic, unless you are talking about “greening” your trash removal while saving $750,000 a year on that and other maintenance services.

Then, suddenly, trash talk in City Hall gets very, very sexy.

Athens Services, West Hollywood’s solid waste management contractor since 2004, has come forward to offer the City of West Hollywood its most aggressive and enticing deal – a way to simplify recycling and re-use and divert the vast majority of this city’s solid waste away from nearly full landfills while saving three quarters of a million dollars a year.

Currently, the City of West Hollywood diverts half of its solid waste into recyclable or re-usable base material, but much of what could be recycled and re-used goes to a landfill because people toss it into the general trash bin instead of the green or blue containers.

Athens ubiquitous trash bins for multi-family residences would accept ALL trash - even recyclables, under the new proposal offered up by the solid waste firm.

Athens is proposing making West Hollywood the greenest city in California by getting rid of the blue bins in multi-family units numbering five or more – and saving residents the trouble of keeping a separate trash can for recyclables.

That way, says Mike Lewis, whose consulting firm is guiding the proposal through the halls at WeHo City Hall, “we can divert as much as 80 percent of the solid waste from landfills to recycle/re-use.”

West Hollywood is a city ripe for a “green” boost, says Athens. It has an environmental consciousness well-honed and ready to accept the simplified process and better environmental results the company is offering.

Athens, as a company, stands at the ready to break out of the pack, making “green” trash services its primary calling card.

According to Athens’ CEO Gary Clifford, “I wake up every morning thinking about ways to divert trash from landfills.”

He says that his competition is locked into using landfills, and when the granddaddy of all landfills in Southern California closes – La Puente – in 2013, the trash haulers will simply take their trash to a more distant landfill out in the desert.

Athens, on the other hand, is making a real dent in recycling, especially in paper, plastic and aluminum. They are one of the largest recyclers in the state.

Recently, the firm bought the only composter in SoCal, and now turn out compost that they give away to the city from which the base “green” materials came from, improving the soils of residential and government owned gardens.

The blue bins for glass, plastic and other recyclables would go by the by, and save you from hhnito keep two trash in your kitchen.

Not only does Athens hope to enhance the “greening” of WeHo, but it is so eager to lock in a 15 year rolling contract with the city it is offering services amounting to a $750,000 savings per year for the privilege of being the Creative City’s maintenance trash and street contractor.

“We’re offering West Hollywood the best deal we’ve ever offered any other city” said Mr. Lewis.

The proposal offers to take over the city’s street sweeping, sidewalk cleaning, dog waste station, electronic and hazardous waste removal and sidewalk trash removal services from the contractors currently serving the city – at a savings of $750,680 – over three-quarters of a million dollars  - per year.

With cities going bankrupt – San Bernardino and Stockton are two recent examples – because of the increases in costs of services, it seems a deal almost too good to be true.

And it might be, even for a city with the fiscal smarts of WeHo, which runs a budget surplus every year that keeps the General Fund topped off and social services fully funded – and then some.

The price tag for all these free and enhanced services is a 15 year rolling contract, locking the city into a de facto 30-year marriage with Athens.

Given that a 27 year old city is marrying a 50 year old firm – the first time West Hollywood would take on such a long contract – city staff is understandably cautious.

Oscar Delgado, the city’s director of Public Works, told WeHo News, “I’m excited about what Athens is offering.” Still, the staff report on the matter (up for council debate on Monday) casts doubt on the idea, saying, “it is questionable whether it would be in the City's best interest to consolidate so many public works services (i.e. street sweeping, pet waste stations, sidewalk cleaning and hand litter pick up) into a single long-term exclusive contract for trash and recycling services.”

In a bid to salve those qualms, Athens has offered the city a set of proposals that enhance the services it already offers and includes taking over the services it does not yet offer that set the length of the contract at shorter lengths – an eight year closed contract, an eight year rolling contract, and a 15 year closed contract.

Not having to run separate trucks for recyclables would also cut down on the number and frequncy of truck trips around town, and keep the back-up beeping and clash and clank of emptying bins to a minimum, improving residents' quality of life.

Assuming that the current $750,000 expenditure for the abovementioned (street sweeping, sidewalk cleaning, etc.) public works services remains constant at $750,000, Athens has put on the table three other proposals.

An eight year closed contract would provide WeHo with enhanced services plus the public works services for $888,000, an increase of $133,000.

The eight year rollover proposal would cost $557,000, a savings of nearly $200,000 per year.

The 15 year closed contract option would cost $372,000, and would save the taxpayers roughly 50 percent, or $373,000 for each of the 15 years the contract is in place.

Athens is shooting for contract stability, according to Mr. Clifford. He says, “trash is an extraordinarily capital intensive business. As we build new plants to better recycle solid waste (a new plant like our Industry operation costs $60 million), banks want us to be able to show them long-term contracts that enable to give us the loans we need.”

 He said that the family-owned firm wants to continue improving and expanding its recycle/re-use operations, and having West Hollywood on board works to its advantage.

Offering a 15 year rollover contract is the only way we can make it pencil out for both us and WeHo,” he said.

“Besides that, West Hollywood has a reputation for good business practices, and by leading the way, by making itself the greenest city in the state, it paves the way for other municipalities to join in.

“That way California can keep from filling up landfills and take a leading role in the country in recycle/re-use policy,” something he dreams of doing each morning even before getting out of bed.

This chart compares costs and services over the four offered contract lengths. Click for larger copy.

The staff report suggests that the city spend $50,000 to hire a consultant with special expertise in solid waste contracts to assist with writing the detailed scope of services if the city decides to bite on one of the proposed options.

See the complete staff report here.