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New deals will cause trash collection costs to rise in New Orleans

It is currently unclear if the city will reinstate twice-a-week trash pickup.

NEW ORLEANS — The new contracts awarded for waste collection in New Orleans will come at a substantially higher price than before.

The new contracts are expected to increase what the city currently pays in those areas by $6 million to $11 million, according to our partners at The Times Picayune New Orleans Advocate, and Matt Torri, the sanitation director.

The current contract is worth around $11 million annually. The cost increased over the last year due to emergency contacts that were given in the wake of Hurricane Ida's landfall.

On Wednesday, the city chose Waste Pro to handle trash collection in the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East. This follows a decision by the city last Thursday to award Sidney Torres' company IV Waste the contract for trash pickup in Lakeview, Gentilly, the 7th Ward and downriver neighborhoods between the French Quarter and the Industrial Canal.

The deals are not finalized, so the exact costs that each company is eyeing to charge is currently unclear.

City residents currently pay a monthly $24 sanitation fee, a number that is already under fire by some residents after the city maintained it despite cutting weekly trash pickup last year.

For the time being, it is unclear if the city will return to twice-a-week trash pickup. If collections remain only once a week, the city will require contractors to provide second carts to all households who request them.

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