Dearborn city council tonight is expected to vote on whether to award a seven year contract to Republic Waste Services for residential trash service, recycling compost and leaf collection, a deal valued at more than $33 million.

The approval would mean the end of work for Waste Management, whose contract expires June 30, and the beginning of a new waste and recycle pickup service for Dearborn residents.

Council will vote on whether to spend $2.7 million to purchase new trash bins, such as the one pictured here, for residents citywide.

Council members also will vote on implementing a new trash and recycling program that would provide each home with one large container for trash and one large container for recycling. Providing two new containers to each home will cost the city $2.7 million, a contact that would be awarded to Cascade Engineering for the residential waste and recycling carts.

The city put in place a pilot program last year to test the new larger trash and recycle containers with homeowners in East Dearborn. Neighborhoods there saw a dramatic decrease in litter and residents were very pleased with the new trash containers. City leaders are hoping for similar results if the council approves going to the new trash collection system on a city-wide basis.

“It is hoped that we will be moving citywide to a system like the one in the pilot area, with one large container for trash and one large container for recycling,” a spokeswoman for the city told us earlier. “The pilot area has experienced a dramatic decrease in litter with this system.”

(Source: League of Women Voters for Dearborn and Dearborn Heights (LWVDDH) press release)

The League of Women Voters of Dearborn-Dearborn Heights is presenting the movie “Blue Gold – World Water Wars,” based on the ground-breaking book by M. Barlow and T. Clarke of the same name.

The movie sheds light on the world’s rapidly approaching water crisis and suggests wars of the future will be fought over water, as they today are over oil, as the source of all life enters the global marketplace and political arena.

As Michigan struggles to maintain shoreline beauty and improve water quality, some places struggle to find drinkable water. Don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom. The film finishes with some problem-solving examples.

The public is invited to join the League on Thursday, April 29, 2010, 7:00 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 120 N. Military, Dearborn. Please contact 313-278-6476 for questions and to register so the League can plan seating and snacks.