FAQ: Resource Recovery Special Charge

The special charge was passed as part of the 2022 operating budget and it is expected to continue in additional budgets to come.

The City’s costs to provide services - all services, not just recycling - are higher than its ability to generate revenue to pay for these services. This is called a "structural deficit."

Current state rules limit Madison's, and other local governments, ability to raise revenue to pay for the services they provide their residents.  The state also currently chooses to provide few resources to Madison via shared revenue and other means.

There are two options to address this gap in funding.

One option is to provide fewer services to reduce costs.  The second is to find new ways to pay for services, including special charges.

In 2022, the budget process made cuts and also shifted the recycling service from the general fund onto the Resource Recovery Special Charge.

Yes, in the same 2022 budget that created the special charge, the Mayor and Council cut $1.4 million from the budgets of almost every department.

In order to continue providing services to Madison residents, the City must utilize its ability to cover some costs through special charges.

One of the services provided by Madison that can be shifted from the property taxes to a special charge is recycling.

The Resource Recovery Special Charge is collected through Madison Municipal Services bill. The funds are then allocated into a designated fund.

These funds will then be used specifically to pay for the costs already incurred by the City to support the recycling program.

The Common Council sets the rate each year.

As with all special charges, the Common Council could choose to put more general fund dollars toward this service to lower the rate.  Or, additional services that are related to recycling could be added to the charge that would increase the rate. For example, if the city wanted to increase services to change to weekly recycling then the costs necessary for doubling the fleet and additional staff could be paid for via the special charge.

A simple calculation is performed where the costs of the recycling service are divided by the number of entities served by the Streets Division.

The charge is a flat monthly rate. 

Residential properties are charged the rate per the number of dwelling units within the property that uses the recycling collection service.

Commercial properties are charges the rate per the number of carts they need for recycling at their business. Commercial properties may choose to use a private recycling service instead of city collection if they prefer. 

When the monthly rate is set, you cannot lower the amount you pay on the Municipal Services (water) bill. 

Putting your cart out fewer times, or taking material to the drop-off site instead will not lower the rate you pay on the special charge.  

The special charge isn't specifically about processing or sorting the material you generate. It's about funding the entire recycling collection and processing system, including recyclables at the drop-off site.

Also, you cannot opt out of recycling.  Recycling is mandatory in Madison and throughout Wisconsin. Failing to recycling can result in fines from Building Inspection, and the Streets Division will stop collecting your trash for your home or business is recyclables are found in the tan trash cart. 

The only way you can help drive down the cost of Resource Recovery Special Charge is by putting the right things in the recycling cart.

By reducing the amount of trash in our recycling, that makes the material we generate more valuable. This means we have to pay less money to have it processed.  The less we have to pay, the less we have to charge. 

There are two progressive ways to apply charges - charging people more if they use more, and charging lower income people less - but we cannot use these methods for this special charge. 

• Paying more if you use more?
  • This does not work with the Resource Recovery Special Charge because recycling right & recycling more is a good thing we want to encourage. This is one of the reasons why this special charge is just a flat rate and it does not matter the size of the cart or frequency the cart is placed out for pickup or other similar concerns.
• Paying less for lower income?
  • State law prohibits differentiation by income when setting this charge. 

The special charge is only for recycling services.

The RRSC is not about trash collection services provides provided by the City of Madison.

If you receive trash collection in carts from the City of Madison, you may continue doing so with no change or special charge for the service. 

Current state law basically prevents trash services from being shifted to a special charge.

Residents who pay the Resource Recovery Special Charge will not need to pay the recycling fee associated with certain large items when they fill out a large item work order for curbside collection or when they take one of these items to a drop-off site.

The special charge is covering the costs related to the processing of these items. 

The special charge will continue to cover these costs so long as the budget process continues to allows for this to occur. It is possible that this cost could be separated from the special charge at some point.

The special charge does not cover the costs related to collecting large items from the curb.  Most large items are things like furniture, carpeting, and other items that wind up in the landfill. 

Multi-family buildings that use Streets Division recycling services should have an equal number of recycling carts to the number of apartments within the building. 

Your multi-family building special charge rate is set by the number of dwelling units within the property.  Having the appropriate number of carts will help residents recycle more and recycle right.

You must also use and store your carts per Building Inspection rules.  Failure to do so may result in fines.

Your recyclables, including cardboard, must be placed into a recycling cart for collection.  Failure to do so may result in the recyclables not being collected.

Carriage Lanes

Many newer sub-divisions in Madison are built in paved alleyways called carriage lanes. The Streets Division does not provide trash and recycling collection services on carriage lanes. This is part of the developer agreement when these neighborhoods were built, and also it within the purchase agreements when the homes are purchased.  

These homeowners pay a private company through their HOA fees to receive their trash and recycling pickup from the carriage lanes. 

Since these homes do not receive recycling collection from the City of Madison, they do not pay the Resource Recovery Special Charge.

If you live on a carriage lane and would like to enroll in the city's cart service, and if you can get the carts to the nearest public street, contact the Streets Division office that services your home to see if this is possible.  To be clear, we cannot provide collection to the carriage lanes.  The carts must be to the public street.

Certain Large Multi-Family Buildings

In 2010, the City of Madison passed a resolution that the Streets Division could not serve properties that have more than 8 units.  

However, some outlier properties still kept curbside trash and recycling pickup even after this resolution was passed. 

At the start of the Resource Recovery Special Charge, no property greater than 8 units will receive recycling collection from the Streets Division. They must secure private collection services. 

If the property has over 8 units, and received cart collection from the Streets Division prior to the start of the Resource Recovery Special Charge, it may continue to do so provided the carts are used and stored correctly, and if these properties continue to pay the Resource Recovery Special Charge based on the number of multi-family units on the property. 

These certain multi-family buildings currently receiving recycling collection from the City of Madison can also choose to opt for a private hauler because, by rule, they are too large to receive collection from the Streets Division. 

Existing residential customers in buildings of 8 units and fewer cannot opt out of the City recycling service.

Businesses and multi-family buildings of more than 8 units can elect to use private haulers. 

The City of Madison does not use zones or similar structure to limit which vendor can be selected to be the private hauler for your business or large complex.

If you do elect to use a private hauler for recycling services, you will not be charged the Resource Recovery Special Charge.

Be mindful of ordinances about dumpster placement and enclosures.

Contact Building Inspection at 608-266-4551 for details regarding these ordinances.

If you add a dwelling unit to your home, then you are adding an additional Resource Recovery Special Charge to your property as well. 

For example, if you added a dwelling unit to your duplex in 2024, and your property now has three dwelling units on it instead of just two. In this example,  your 2024 monthly rate would increase from $7.90 (2 dwelling units x $3.95) to $11.85 (3 dwelling units x $3.95).

The simplest way to explain how this works is to use an example.

Say there's three apartments above a coffee shop and all of them use City of Madison recycling collection.

The bill for the entire property would be the monthly rate for the Resource Recovery Special Charge (RRSC) for each of the apartments, and then add in the number of carts the coffee shop needs to successfully recycle the materials they generate.

To continue with the above example, let's assume the coffee shop requires 2 recycling carts for their cardboard, clean takeout cups, and other material.

The total charge for this example building in 2024 would add the apartments RRSC (3 apartments x $3.95 = $11.85) to the coffee shop's RRSC (2 carts x $3.95 = $7.90) for a total monthly RRSC in 2024 for this property of $19.75.

Not every situation will be this easy. Feel free to contact us to work out what is right for your property.