'Sticker shock' for Bucks County towns bidding trash contracts since pandemic. Here's why

Bucks County residents and municipalities are finding that since the pandemic, trash removal has gotten quite expensive.

In Bristol Borough, Manager James Dillon said the cost of trash collection went up 70% in the past year after it had been stable for several years under a previous contract that began in 2016.

The increase is hitting or will hit many municipalities as they end long contracts that were signed before 2020 and COVID, and by post-pandemic impacts on costs that often are passed to residents through taxes and fees.

Some in Bucks County also pay for their own trash pickup and those contracts are also on the rise, industry officials said.

Trash removal and collection costs rise after pandemic

Bristol's seven-year long contract with J.P. Mascaro & Sons expired last year and Mascaro was the lowest bidder to renew the contract which provides trash removal service two days a week, with recyclables picked up one day per week per household.

But the rates went up from $395 to $675 per unit per year, Dillon said.

Mascaro, based in Audubon, also provides trash pickup for Lower Southampton, Upper Southampton and Warminster in Bucks County, said Frank Sau, company spokesman.

The annual rate in Warminster is $440 per household, with a discount for seniors age 62 and older who own single-family homes, said a Warminster spokeswoman. Warminster's contract for two-day-a week trash service, with recyclables one day a week, began in 2019 before the COVID pandemic hit.

"Our price was so good compared to current pricing that when the township notified us last year that it was to exercise the option for 2024 it also notified us that it would be taking the 2025 option year," said Al DeGennero, deputy general counsel for P.J. Mascaro & Sons.

Option years are years at the end of a contract period when a municipality can opt to keep the same coverage for another year or two before a contract needs to be renegotiated.

But without those option years, municipal officials will need to enter new contracts, and prices are steeply up.

More: Waste Management's plan to expand landfill could be $135M revenue boost for Falls Township

Mascaro has seen a sharp rise in its costs since the pandemic, said both DeGennero and Sau.

Sau said throughout "the whole state of Pennsylvania" there is competition for drivers with commercial driver's license registration who can operate large trucks, including trash vehicles. Many drivers left the trash-hauling industry during the COVID crisis and have been hard to replace.

"Overall costs on literally everything have gone up," Sau said.

DeGennero said since the pandemic the company's interest rates are up 165%, wages for drivers and driver helpers are up 65%, truck and equipment costs are up 35%, while fuel, parts and repair costs are all up 50% or more. Insurance and safety costs are up 35%, recycling processing costs are up 35% and disposal costs are up 20 to 25%, he said.

"These are real costs that we have experienced that have had to be passed on to our customers, municipal and commercial," DeGennero said.

Could service be cut to one-day a week?

Sau said, "A growing industry trend is a lot of municipalities are going to one time a week service."

Both Lower and Upper Southampton have one-day a week trash pickup with an extra day for yard waste during the spring, summer and fall.

Waste Management spokesman John Hambrose said that company too is experiencing cost increases.

"Communities that last bid their waste and recycling contracts before the pandemic are experiencing sticker shock when they receive new service bids," he said.

Middletown to bid trash collection this year

Middletown Township provides two-day-a week service to its residents through its contract with Waste Management.

"We are in the final year of a five-year contract. It did not increase in 2024," township Manager Stephanie Teoli-Kuhls said. "We will be bidding later this year and will know actual costs of contract for future years then."

McCullough deals with customers, not municipalities

Another trash hauler, McCullough Rubbish Removal of Morrisville, said it only deals with individual clients, working in municipalities where people pick their own trash removal service, like Lower Makefield.

"Our costs have gone up," said a company spokesperson. She said McCullough doesn't offer long-term contracts with its clients. Rather they pay in three-month installments and the rates are adjusted each quarter year if need be.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Trash collection rates up in Bucks County, PA; could impact service