Tacoma City Council is expected to vote later this month on a resolution that would allow the city to begin phasing in an every-other-week garbage collection program over the course of a year beginning in January, with actual changes to customer containers and frequency beginning in March.

City officials estimate that switching to every-other-week garbage collection will reduce the cost of the residential garbage collection program by between $900,000 and nearly $1.3 million per year. They also estimate greenhouse gas particulates and toxic air emissions from residential garbage collection will be reduced by as much as 40 percent as a result of reduced diesel exhaust emissions. The plan requires hiring approximately 20 temporary employees to carry out tasks such as exchanging the garbage containers for every residential customer served by Solid Waste Management and working on “knock-and-talk” public outreach teams.

Tacoma Public Works staff briefed city council’s environment and public works committee on the plan during public meetings in January, August, and October. Similarly, councilmembers were briefed on the plan during a study session in May.

More information about every-other-week garbage collection in Tacoma is online here.

Tacoma City Council is tentatively scheduled to vote on the resolution to begin phasing in the program during its meeting on Tues., Nov. 27 at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers on the first floor of the Tacoma Municipal Building, located 747 Market Street. The pending agenda and meeting materials are available online here (UPDATE: The resolution is officially on the agenda). Meetings are streamed live online at tvtacoma.com and broadcast live on TV Tacoma.