Media investigation finds distressing DC solid waste accounting

An investigative report by a Washington newspaper contends the government of the District of Columbia is in the red millions of dollars each year because of questionable contract terms for its two municipal solid waste (MSW) and commercial waste transfer stations.

The lengthy Washington City Paper July 23 article states, “For the past decade, every ton of garbage in every private trash truck on city streets has cost D.C. up to $36 more than it should.” Taxpayer losses in 2018 totaled more than $8.5 million says the newspaper, based on what it calls an 18-month investigation of the city’s waste system.

The report, authored by Cuneyt Dil, whose investigation was funded in part by the Spotlight DC Capital City Fund for Investigative Journalism, points to settlement agreements reached in 2002 with Republic Services Inc. and Waste Management Inc. as one of the culprits. Those agreements were reached as a way to reduce the overall number of transfer stations in the district. “Private stations near residential neighborhoods were nuisances that city and neighborhood leaders wanted to shutter, but environmentalists and experts say the discounts given in return for the station closures went way too far and on for too long,” writes Dil.

The $50 per ton tipping fee also has resulted in MSW and commercial waste from outside the district flowing into the two D.C. transfer stations, according to the report.

The crux of the problem facing elected and appointed officials in the district is this, according to Dil: Between 2010 and late 2019, the district was charging about $50 to take in a ton of trash at the two transfer stations, but its expenses are now about $86 per ton to handle that MSW and take it to a Covanta waste-to-energy facility in Lorton, Virginia.

Neil Seldman of the Washington-based based Institute for Local Self-Reliance says if the tip fee gap is closed, it would be helpful to both D.C. taxpayers and the recycling sector. “If D.C. adjusted the rates charged at its public trash transfer stations, the revenues could be dedicated to waste reduction, recycling, reuse and composting programs,” he tells the Washington City Paper.