Owosso: trash pickup is not ending today under Ordinance 854

If you were told your trash pickup in Owosso stops today, the city says it isn't so. In a notice posted Monday, Oct. 26, the City of Owosso wrote: "Your trash service is NOT ending on Monday."

The city said it had "heard from many residents who were told trash collection stops on October 26," and said that is not true. The confusion is over Ordinance No. 854, which does take effect today. But the city's notice says nothing changes on your collection day and your current hauler will keep picking up your trash as usual.

What the ordinance does, the city said, is give the City Council an option: it lets the council choose a single trash and recycling hauler for the whole city. The notice says the ordinance "does not require Council to do so, and it does not fine haulers who keep serving their customers." The Current reported earlier this month that the council adopted the single-hauler ordinance on a 4-3 vote.

No contract exists yet. Before anything changes, the city says the council still has to award a bid, negotiate and approve a contract, and decide how the service would be paid for — and each of those steps happens at a public council meeting where residents may comment. After a contract is approved, the notice says a months-long period of public notice and education follows, and carts would be bought and delivered before the new service begins.

One thing the ordinance does not change: property owners must keep trash service in place until any citywide service starts. If your hauler ends your agreement early, the city says you will need to find another one. And if you have prepaid, the city says that is between you and your hauler, "because the City is not a party to those agreements."

The city's stated reason for moving at all is a state deadline. Michigan's Part 115 requires cities Owosso's size to offer curbside recycling to 90% of single-family homes by 2028. The city also points to its master plan, which calls for a citywide trash and recycling service that it says can lower residents' garbage bills, add recycling, and cut the number of garbage trucks running the streets each week. The Current reported in September that the city tied the single-hauler proposal to that same state recycling requirement when it noticed the Oct. 5 public hearing.

What happens next: nothing on your curb. The next real decision point is a bid award at a public council meeting, and the city has not said when that will be, who would be eligible to bid, or how the service would be funded — whether through a city charge on the tax or utility bill or a direct payment to the hauler. Those answers come at council, and we will report them.