[GreenYes] Re: Permit or Licensing Fees for Haulers

["Peter Spendelow" <spendelow.peter@no.address>]

In Oregon, most jurisdictions have exclusive franchises for garbage
collection.  This means that the city or county allows only one company
to pick up garbage in a specific geographic area.  Some large cities
have multiple areas that they franchise to different collection
companies.  In return for the exclusive right to pick up garbage, the
garbage company has the rates it charges be set by the city or county.
In addition, the garbage company must also provide recycling service
and often yard debris collection service to their customers, must pay a
franchise fee to the city or county, and sometimes must provide extra
services such as provide free collection of garbage from city buildings
or parks.  The city regulates the rates that the garbage company can
charge to their customers, but that rate is required by law to be high
enough to pay for all the services and fees required.

I do not have information on the specific amounts that cities charge as
franchise fees, but I think it is often on the order of 5% of gross
receipts.  Some cities such as Portland put virtually all of this back
into their solid waste and related programs, but some cities do use
this franchise fee as just general revenue that can be spent on
unrelated services.

Peter Spendelow
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality