Lee’s Summit is working toward a municipal trash program. Here’s what to know
Lee’s Summit residents could soon see their to-do lists shrinking as the city continues to move toward establishing a municipal trash pickup service.
As in several neighboring cities in Jackson County, trash services in Lee’s Summit are currently privatized, with individual people, businesses and homeowners’ associations finding their own providers.
The city contracts with nine waste service providers and two composters for residential buildings, as well as 17 trash and recycling companies for commercial properties.
As part of their agreement with the city, all of these services are located in city limits and required to provide curbside recycling and yard waste services on request.
But earlier this spring, the City Council approved a plan to condense waste services for single-family homes under one provider, which would contract directly with the city.
While this plan won’t go into effect for several months, city officials have begun collecting feedback from residents as they prepare to search for a permanent provider.
Building a program
The city previously tried to establish a municipal waste program in 2011. However, plans fell through due in part to opposition from haulers and homeowners’ associations.
“The last time we did this…we did not have a uniform community behind it,” Michael Park, the director of public works for Lee’s Summit, said at a February City Council meeting. “We had opposition from haulers. We had opposition from a minority, but very loud, group of constituents.”
The move to a city-provided service isn’t expected to require a new sales tax, according to the city, and is expected to be cheaper for many customers.
City officials have said that moving to one provider would lower trash bills for most customers and would reduce wear and tear on city streets, along with noise and pollution, since fewer trucks would be driving to pick up waste weekly.
“We’re going to save on the wear and tear of our infrastructure,” Michael Park, director of public works, said at a February council meeting launching the project.
If the proposal moved forward, a new municipal trash provider could start services as early as June 2027, with an initial contract lasting five to seven years, according to the Lee’s Summit Department of Public Works.
The municipal provider would continue to bill customers directly, similar to electricity and gas providers. Homeowners’ associations would have the option to either maintain their existing contracts or switch to the municipal provider chosen by the city.
Businesses and other commercial properties will not be included in the new contract. Neither will apartment buildings and multi-family dwellings with more than four units, which are already typically served by commercial waste management contractors.
“While we do not know how much each resident currently pays for service, we have a very good idea what those costs are,” the city’s public works website reads. “We will only know how significant the cost savings will be once we receive bids.”
Next steps
The city’s current waste services contract requires it to give two years’ notice to other haulers currently operating in the city, which public works officials did in June.
It is not yet clear whether one of the waste providers that already works in the city will be chosen, or whether a new provider will be hired. The city has not yet issued a formal request for proposal, which would narrow down the field significantly.
Along with the organizations that already have a relationship with the city, the search process for a municipal provider includes 11 residential haulers and 26 commercial haulers as of August 11.
The city also reached out to 161 homeowners’ and property owners’ associations.
The public works department hosted a series of public meetings in the spring and is expected to issue a recommendation to the council in October. Park said the council’s goal is to have the new program mostly in place before the November 2026 general election, in order to avoid politicizing waste pickup during upcoming municipal campaigns.
“There’s people on the dais that are pretty passionate about this one and really want to see all of us educated and discussing it,” councilmember Donnie Funk said at a February City Council meeting.
The city’s next step will be to establish a solid waste task force to determine priorities for a contractor. The 13-member task force will include four HOA representatives, eight residents of four districts and someone who works in the waste management industry.
The council said in February that solid waste and storm water management are the public works department’s primary goals at the moment. The department plans to turn to city beautification efforts next.
