Dive Brief:

• The Sacramento Regional Solid Waste Authority (SWA) has hired HF&H Consultants to explore a new commercial trash hauling service model to resolve the problem of smelly dumpsters in its alleys behind local businesses. Cleaning up the space will enable the city to join a trend of using alleyways for public activity, said executive director Emily Baime Michaels to the Sacramento Business Journal.
• Currently businesses individually contract for trash service, choosing from approved haulers such as Atlas or Waste Management. The system is not working; a proposed solution is to open a city bidding process and contract with one commercial trash hauler.
• H&H Consultants plans to present options in March to the SWA, a joint agreement between Sacramento city and county.

Dive Insight:

Michaels said her association has no stand on a single-hauler program — her goal is simply to reform the system in an economical way, and this is not the first of recent attempts to bring change to solid waste management in Sacramento.

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership thinks the proposal sounds promising.

"We are open to the exclusive contract idea because it has worked well in Old Sacramento," said Emilie Cameron, the organization's policy and advocacy manager.

But downtown businesses worry a single-hauler program would not be a smart business move.

"Eliminating the free market on businesses could have a negative impact by increasing prices and reducing services," the advocacy group Region Business wrote to the SWA.