New Palatine garbage contract offers food scrap composting

Palatine residents would see expanded recycling and composting options under an amended solid waste contract with Groot Industries.

The village council Monday authorized the village manager to negotiate a new eight-year contract. The current contract expires at the end of this year.

“Their proposal exceeded what recent communities have been able to get rate-wise when they have gone out through a very formal competitive process,” Village Manager Reid Ottesen said.

Under the new agreement, effective in January, the owner of a single family home in Palatine would see their current $21 per month refuse bill remain flat at $21 per month for the next five years.

Unlimited collection will continue.

“That’s a big one,” Ottesen said, “because a lot of communities have shifted away from unlimited and they start requiring more and more stickers or fees for pickup.”

In addition, the contract also locks in the current collection schedule.

One key feature is a food-scrap recycling and composting program. From the first pickup in April through the second week of December, residents can place food scraps in landscape waste bags at the curb for no extra cost. For those who want it year round, there would be an optional year-round subscription service, at a $12.50 per month cost for three years. It would include a toter that can hold both food scraps and landscape waste.

The deal has a three-year review of the subscription composting program and a 2031 reopener in case the village leaves the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County.