Photo: Arvell Dorsey Jr. / Flickr

Photo: Arvell Dorsey Jr. / Flickr

The City of Chicago plans to eliminate 18 garbage trucks in a fleet reduction plan expected to increase waste-collection efficiency and save the city $7 million, according to Waste Dive.

The reduction follows an audit conducted by Inspector General Joe Ferguson that found there was not enough work to be done for the amount of trucks deployed each day. The fleet's vehicle count would fall to 292 from 301.

City sanitation workers were finishing their routes in three hours but being allotted five, resulting in two hours of excess spending for the city.

This reduction comes on the heels of a recent shift from a ward-to-ward waste collection system within the city over to a grid system that resulted in $28 million in operating cost reductions that were redirected to other Department of Streets and Sanitation services by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Mayor Emanuel also plans to impose a garbage collection fee on Chicago residents that, if passed, would cost homeowners up to $12 a month.

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