Opportunities for Regional Collaboration

The Town of Gilbert is a municipality in the East Valley within the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. With incredible population growth over the past decade, the Town is committed to maintaining high quality services and amenities while continuing to plan for growth and development. As the Public Works Department is key to providing services to Town residents, the Solid Waste & Recycling Services Division is interested in exploring how Gilbert might create opportunities for regional collaboration on providing solid waste services. Many communities throughout the Phoenix Metro have been discussing opportunities for collaboration, providing opportunities for a more resilient solid waste services system, but have few formalized agreements and plans for collaboration. To advance these efforts, graduate public affairs students collaborated with the Town of Gilbert to explore collaboration and partnership best practices locally and globally, identified successful agreements to provide exemplars for future opportunities, and provided recommendations to galvanize impactful regional collaboration around solid waste services.