Sanitation just got more expensive in New Orleans -- the household fee for once-a-week pick-ups went up $8.25 this month. Today, the sanitation department gets its turn before the city council's ongoing budget hearings.
Ever since Hurricane Ida five years ago, New Orleans has gone from twice-weekly trash collection to just one pickup a week, and a lot of people have been unhappy about it.
Council President J.P. Morrell says he hears from residents who ask why Jefferson Parish or Baton Rouge can do twice-a-week pickup, and points out that Baton Rouge trash collectors get paid minimum wage, while New Orleans pays theirs a living wage. And Morrell notes that Jefferson Parish doesn't have recycling.
"The residents of the city want us to go to two days a week, that is something we can do," said Morrell, "but you have to compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges and apples to kumquats."
Morrell says residents need to decide what they want.
"The cleanliness of the quarter? That lemon scent? That's $5 million," he said. "That's $5 million on top of trash pickup, and that is a cost the entire city bears."
Morrell says they can do twice a week pickup, they can do lower fees, but they can't do all of the above.
