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. . . somehow. Even if new customers can be financed by charging slightly higher rates to everyone else, even spreading the increase across a huge customer base, the County Environmental Charge does not go away. While the customer is getting free service, the hauler is paying the CEC and needs to recover that cost. Over the lifetime of such a contract, with no ability to "shop around" when the rates go up or service quality changes, customers may find these are not such good deals after all. Stealing Service Minnesota law (Waste Management Act) requires cities with over 5000 residents to ensure that every household has refuse pickup service. With an open system, this is simply impossible. Falcon Heights code does allow "self-hauling" under limited circumstances, which is supposed to mean that the householder transports his or her own refuse to a transfer station, landfill or other legal processing facility and pays the tipping fee. What it means, in practice, as the Committee heard anecdotally in public meetings, is that some residents avoid paying the cost of the waste they produce by passing that cost on to others. Whether they take their waste to work and put it into the employer's dumpster or drop it off in a trash can at the mall or a city park, they are essentially stealing service and raising the cost to everyone else, the same as if they were running their electricity off of someone else's meter. Notes 1. City of North St. Paul 2000 rates comparison charts, provided by North St. Paul staff. See Appendix D 2. This claim featured prominently in letters sent to residents after the City armounced plans to enter into the organized collection process at the end of January, 2004. The letters, generated from an industry template and reprinted on each company's letterhead, were nearly identical to letters sent out during the Ramsey-Washington Counties public collection study in 2002. See Samples in Appendix F. 3. Minnesota Attorney General's Office Report on Municipal Rubbish Hauling, 1994 (file copy) 4. "Comparative Economic Analysis of MSW and Recycling Collection in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area," prepared for tile Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance by GBB Solid Waste Management Consultants, September, 1994. 5. Appendix 14, "Pnblic Collection Study: Final Rep01t," RamseyfWashington Counties Resource Recovery Project, 2002. 6. Ibid. City of Falcon Heights Final Report on Organized Collection October 13, 2004 11