The route system known as Area E — Cordova, Hickory Hill and parts of East Memphis — has 35,000 households from which the city’s private contractor collects waste. 

Area E was a test case for privatizing waste collection across the city during the administration of Mayor A C Wharton.

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It has hung around into the Strickland administration but not with the same goal of taking the city’s entire solid waste operation private.

“We have never examined it as a test case for privatization,” city Chief Operation Officer Doug McGowen said of the Strickland administration’s view of the area’s origins. “It was a known condition when this administration came in.”

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The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, which represents solid waste workers, fought the privatization move at the time.

The pushback from the union was overwhelmed by the city’s consideration of larger changes, including “pay to throw” systems that would have attached an additional fee to each bag of waste thrown onto garbage trucks beyond a certain point. It would have required citizens to use — and crews to pick up —bags dispensed by the city.

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Solid waste consultant Marc Rogoff says the pull of letting private companies handle a public service can be strong, but city solid waste employees generally rate highly among city employees who have contact with the public.

“I’m kind of agnostic as far as service goes,” he said. “I’ve seen really good municipal programs that people really like.”

“Typically, in many municipalities when we do these customer surveys ... the trash disposal people normally rank No. 1 over the fire department in most places,” Rogoff said.

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During the Wharton administration’s exploration, Memphians also reacted vocally to the idea that they couldn’t put anything and everything by the curb to be collected without being charged extra. 

Decades earlier, a previous generation of Memphians complained when garbage crews no longer went into backyards to empty trash cans and residents had to instead put the carts — rented from the city — by the curb.

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Strickland’s overhaul of garbage services set some limits on what would be picked up but expanded the types of recyclables that would be collected in a much larger recycling bin.

It also left behind much of the complexity of Wharton’s evolving structure that never reached final form.