Should Municipalities Contract for Trash and Recycling Collection?

Due to the poor economic conditions, local municipalities are having a very hard time balancing their budgets and keeping their tax rates to a minimum while their citizens are demanding more tax cuts.
One way found to reduce public expenditures is the use of private contractors for trash and recycling operations. The advantages of privatization offer savings of thousands and even millions in some communities over the use of their own Public Works departments. According to a study by the Waste Management Association of Ontario, outsourced collection workers are greater than twice as productive as public sector workers.
Cape May County municipalities which use or have converted to private contractors have found advantages such as: fixed costs for budget preparation, controlled rise of costs of fuel and oil, lower labor costs, no facilities required, no overtime pay, no insurance expenses, no scheduling problems, no mechanical breakdowns, no legal expenses, overall lower costs, and no more big bond issues to purchase expensive equipment!
Nine of the 16 municipalities in Cape May County that use private contractors for all or part of their trash and recycling operations do so because they have found that they can save significant amounts of money for their taxpayers and at the same time do away with all the problems associated with those operations.
But make no mistake; it is not an easy decision. For elected community leaders, that means they might be risking their election or re-election efforts.
The plan for privatization could cause a restructuring of the Public Works departments which might include layoffs, retirements, and re-deployments with some employees being offered employment with the new outsourcing contractor.
Municipalities might want to keep some of their employees and equipment for other jobs such as snow removal, leaf collections, road repair, tree trimming on right-of-ways, catch basin cleaning and repair, etc.
Cape May County communities that use their own Public Works departments might want to consider privatization as an option for possible cost savings for their trash and recycling needs.