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. . . Introduction On March 24,2004, the Falcon Heights City Council passed a resolution of intent to organize refuse collection under the provisions of Minnesota Statute 115A.04 (1). At that time the Council called upon the Solid Waste Corrunission to undertalce frniher study of all the issues related to the proposed change. The results of the Commission's study are presented here with a list of options for the City and the recommendations of the Solid Waste Commission. Background For many years the City of Falcon Heights has had an "open" system of trash collection. The City does not provide refuse collection as a municipal service but requires residents, apartment owners a11d businesses to contract independently with a hauler licensed in the City. This kind of system is common in Minnesota, but it is not the only way to manage municipal solid waste. Trash collection can be managed by the city (or county), either with a municipal system using city trucks and city employees, such as in Minneapolis, or by contracting with one or more private companies to perform the service. This is called public collection or orga1llzed collection. In 1990 Falcon Heights considered organized collection but did not adopt it, although the door was then left open for future consideration. Since then the solid waste industry and the regulatory environment have changed dramatically. In 2002 the Falcon Heights Solid Waste Commission was reactivated at a time wben Ramsey and Washington Counties were conducting a major study on whether organized collection should be implemented county-wide. As part of its mission to work toward a more efficient, more economical a1ld more environmentally sound solid waste disposal system in Falcon Heights, the Solid Waste Commission followed the Counties' study with interest and began to reconsider the question of whether an organized collection system would serve the interests of Falcon Heights residents better than the open system. The Commission spent a year in preliminary study and discussion of the issue. Response to questions related to solid waste in the 2002 city-wide survey (which covered many topics, not just trash collection) indicated that there was some public support for the possibility of a city-negotiated contract if it could bring lower prices and more environmentally sound practices. There was anecdotal evidence that other cities had been able to negotiate lower refuse pick -up prices for their residents by implementing organized collection. Falcon Heights had recently undertaken a major series of street and alley reconstructions, and residents had expressed concern about the impact of multiple garbage trucks on this expensive new infrastructure and related impacts on the quality of life: safety, noise and air pollution. As a result of what they learned in 2002 and 2003, the Solid Waste Commission recommended to the City Council January 28, 2004, that the City formally enter into the process of organizing municipal solid waste collection under the telIDS of Minnesota City of Falcon Heights Final Report on Organized Collection October 13, 2004 5