2020-070 Origins of WasteDate: August 7, 2020 Report No. 2020-070
INFORMAL STAFF REPORT
TO MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT:
To provide an update on the origins of waste received at the City of Denton Landfill.
BACKGROUND:
As part of the FY 2019-2020 budget process, Solid Waste and Recycling Staff received direction
from the Denton City Council to solicit rate and waste volume guarantees from 3rd party waste
haulers to use City of Denton Landfill disposal capacity with a threefold purpose: to adjust a more
favorable, market-rate driven price for the tonnage brought to the landfill, provide financial
certainty into the solid waste enterprise to address the stranded debt resulting from past, under
recovering programs, and to allow landfill operations to optimize its fixed cost across a larger and
guaranteed tonnage of material handled.
Six (6) three-year contracts were approved during the City Council sessions on October 8, 2019,
October 15, 2019 and November 5, 2019.
DISCUSSION:
In FY 2019-2020, contracted 3rd party waste customers are on track to deliver an estimated 75,000
additional tons of waste (over the uncontracted FY2018/2019 deliveries) with an impact to landfill
life of 183 days over the three-year life of the contracts.
Exclusive of contracted tonnage, the landfill’s retail, gate traffic has experienced strong growth,
with an estimated 20,000 additional tons being delivered in this fiscal year over last. This waste
has originated from sources in an even split between inside and outside of Denton. Factors
contributing to this growth include the exponential residential and corporate growth in North
Texas and regional shifts in the disposal market in the DFW area, specifically the closing of
Waste Management’s DFW Recycling and Disposal Facility located in Lewisville.
Entity FY 18-19 Tons Guaranteed Volume YTD Tons % of Contract
CWD 20,557 72,000 39,039 54.22%
Frontier 6,838 40,000 27,416 68.54%
Republic 7,774 7,237 3,473 47.99%
Town of Little Elm 1,940 1,900 1,220 64.19%
Waste Connections 68,452 62,292 51,712 83.02%
Wise County 400 3,500 2,745 78.42%
Total Contract 105,962 186,929 125,605
Date: August 7, 2020 Report No. 2020-070
In FY18-19, 44% of the total waste received at the City of Denton landfill came from outside the
city limits. In this current year, with the contracts and growth, the percentage shifted to 57% of
total waste received having an origin outside of Denton.
CONCLUSION:
In the coming weeks the Solid Waste and Recycling department will bring to Council a request for
approval of the Solid Waste Comprehensive Management Strategy. A central focus of this strategy
will be to conduct a regional waste market analysis and communicate opportunities to the public
in order to determine a long-range plan for waste acceptance at the landfill. Additionally, as a part
of the FY 20-21 budget presentations, Finance is bringing forward a proposed rate increase to the
gate rate for outside of Denton customers.
STAFF CONTACT:
Brian Boerner
Director of Solid Waste
(940) 349-8001
brian.boerner@cityofdenton.com
Tina Ek
Senior Business Analyst
(940) 349-8056
tina.ek@cityofdenton.com
Entity FY 18-19 Tons % Total YTD Tons % Total
City of Denton-Residential 28,145 100.00%25,854 100.00%
City of Denton-Commercial 93,701 100.00%77,827 100.00%
Total City Hauled Gate 121,846 103,681
135,993 Year End Projection
FY 18-19 Tons % Total YTD Tons % Total
Total Tons Denton 168,497 55.77%134,070 43.26%
Total Tons Outside Denton 133,619 44.23%175,856 56.74%
302,117 309,927