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Falls Church is considering a major overhaul of its curbside waste program that could add weekly organics collection, shift service costs from property taxes to household fees and address a decades-old complaint from residents who pay for city collection they cannot use.

The Solid Waste Task Force, created in May 2025 by City Manager Wyatt Shields as an advisory body to the City Council, is studying changes to trash, recycling and composting services. Its work follows the city’s 2024 Solid Waste Management Plan, a 20-year blueprint focused on waste reduction, resource conservation and sustainable disposal.

After three public meetings in June, the task force planned a final meeting for July 21 at 2 p.m. Its recommendations on fees, billing, composting, communications and possible City Code amendments were scheduled to reach the council Aug. 4.

The central proposals include introducing a third curbside cart for organic material, preserving drop-off composting and changing how the city pays for collection.

A third cart for food and yard waste

Eligible households currently receive trash and recycling carts. Under the proposal, they could also receive an organics cart for food scraps and yard waste collected weekly.

City estimates presented to the task force suggest the service could sharply expand composting beyond the roughly 20 percent of eligible curbside households participating in the current opt-in program. It could also reduce the amount of material sent to waste-to-energy facilities or landfills.

The city now subsidizes Compost Crew collection for about 500 households. Participants pay roughly $8 per month for a smaller cart or about $15 for a larger one. A task force presentation estimated that incorporating organics into the broader curbside program could reduce annual costs for current composting customers from $96 to about $22.

The drop-off composting program would remain available, including for commercial users.

Task force member Diane Bartley said the organics cart could also replace much of the city’s Yellow Sticker Program, which requires residents to buy designated bags or stickers for yard waste. That system has drawn complaints, including concerns about where residents can buy supplies following the closing of Brown’s Hardware.

Bartley pointed to Arlington County’s experience with a third cart, saying task force members learned that about 90 percent of residents there use it for yard waste. Residents would not be required to use the organics cart or participate in recycling.

Collection costs could also decline if residents divert more material. Bartley said the task force was told July 9 that disposal charges were about $91 per ton for regular trash and approximately $41 per ton for compost and other organic material.

Separating food waste also carries environmental benefits because organic material buried without oxygen can produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Apartment and condo residents seek relief

The financing question centers on a long-running fairness dispute.

Falls Church pays for curbside collection through its General Fund, meaning the cost is supported by property taxes. But apartments, condominiums and some townhouses generally cannot receive the service and must arrange private collection through their building management or homeowners associations.

Some properties cannot be served because they share collection areas with commercial tenants, require more frequent pickups or sit on private roads city vehicles cannot enter.

Mayor Letty Hardi has credited Park Towers resident Gail Wadsworth with raising the issue for more than 30 years. Hardi has said the imbalance is becoming more significant as Falls Church now has about 4,000 multifamily apartments and condominiums, compared with roughly 3,000 single-family houses and townhouses.

Removing curbside collection from the property-tax base could lower taxes for buildings that do not receive the service while imposing a separate charge on households that do.

Hardi outlined one possible fixed-fee approach that would remove about $950,000 from the tax rate, producing an estimated 1.5-cent reduction. The approximately 4,000 multifamily households and commercial properties outside the program would receive the tax cut without a new collection fee. The roughly 3,000 households receiving curbside service would get the same tax reduction but pay an estimated $332 per year for trash, recycling and a new organics cart.

Bartley cited another preliminary flat-fee estimate of approximately $385 per household annually. The figures remain under review, and the task force has no authority to enact a change.

“The City Council will make a decision, or do nothing, or ignore our recommendation,” Bartley said, emphasizing that the group’s role is to examine the options and identify the fairest approach.

Flat fee or pay as you throw

A uniform household fee presents its own equity concerns because property-tax savings would vary with assessed value. Owners of expensive homes would receive larger tax reductions than owners of less costly properties while paying the same service fee.

The task force is therefore also examining variable pricing based on cart size. Under a pay-as-you-throw system, a household using a 35-gallon trash cart might pay less than one using a 65-gallon cart. That approach could give residents a financial incentive to produce less trash and divert more food and yard waste into the organics stream.

Bartley described the alternatives as an “all-you-can-eat” flat-fee model and a pay-as-you-throw plan offering a discount for a smaller trash cart.

Neighboring jurisdictions use both tax-supported and fee-for-service systems, she said, leaving no clear regional consensus. Falls Church’s City Code previously called for a fee-based model, according to Bartley, but the change was never implemented.

Bartley, a Winter Hill townhouse resident who has lived in the community for about 16 years, joined the task force after years of involvement with her homeowners association and city projects. She said members have remained open-minded while weighing cost, fairness and environmental goals.

Any recommendations would still require council action. Hardi said that if changes were approved, residents might see the effects through their end-of-year real estate tax bills.

Bartley said the proposals should offer residents more than a change in billing. In her view, a third cart could make yard-waste disposal easier, expand access to composting and lower costs as Falls Church works toward its waste-reduction and carbon-emissions goals.