Now, the city is considering junking it.

Under a proposal the City Council will discuss tonight, the annual cleanup could be scrapped and replaced by a new green-waste program.

For $12.25 a month, the city would provide residents with 90-gallon cans to collect green waste - lawn clippings, tree branches - that would be turned into compost and wood chips at the landfill. That would be in addition to the recycling and garbage cans that run residents $9.75 a month (a fee that could jump to $10.75 in July).

The green-waste program would cost the city more than the cleanup - $3.2 million to start up and $1.6 million a year to maintain - but would create more space at the landfill, extending its life.

Residents love the cleanup program, said Sheila Yorkin, a spokeswoman for the Public Services Department. But it's difficult to administer and residents complain about illegal dumping in which people add their trash to another neighborhood's pile. The city also has had problems with contractors discarding their material in the heaps.

Still, the city administration wants to continue the cleanup program - which costs the city about $1.5 million a year - and says eliminating it would result in a "materially reduced service level."

"Overall, it's a positive for residents," Yorkin said. "Residents are used to it; it's something they count on. Whenever we make changes to anything like that, it's an adjustment - not that it can't be done."

It's the council that may want to tweak the program. A council staff report lays out the elimination of neighborhood cleanup, though some council members don't agree.

Councilwoman Nancy Saxton wants to explore adding the green-waste cans, but she doesn't want to yank the cleanup. She would like to see the city move to offering Dumpsters to neighborhoods that want them, instead of having residents pile their junk on the street.

"I've never been a proponent of getting rid of it," she said.

A Dumpster-based program would allow neighbors to spring-clean on their timetable, instead of the city's. And, Saxton said, "it just keeps the unsightliness down and keeps [away] phantom pile raiders and people that come pile items on illegally in the middle of the night."

Steve Mecham, chairman of the Greater Avenues Community Council, said his neighbors look forward to the annual cleanup. Some even delay home-renovation projects to time them with the pickup.

"It's been a valuable program that people have liked and have used," he said.

As for adding green-waste cans, Mecham likes the idea of separating such refuse. But he wonders if people will have room for a third can.

Saxton hopes residents weigh in on the ideas.

"We want something that's going to work for the public," she said. "There's nothing foregone about it at all."

hmay@sltrib.com

In 2005, the Salt Lake Valley Landfill took in:

783,000 tons of garbage

159,000 tons of recyclables

26,000 tons of green waste