LEWISTON – Councilors on Tuesday could put an end to the controversial committee trying to plot a new trash collection and recycling policy.

“I just don’t see a need for the committee to continue to exist and take up valuable time doing something redundant,” former committee Chairman Michael Dumas said. “The city doesn’t need it any more.”

The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the fate of the committee at its meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. in council chambers. Creating it was one of the first actions councilors took after taking office in January 2008.

The committee was designed as a successor to a solid waste task force that reviewed a potential management plan for the city’s landfill in fall 2007. Councilors ultimately turned back a proposal to hand management of the landfill to Casella Solid Waste. That issue culminated in a heavily attended public hearing, with more than 150 people urging the city to pass on the deal.

The standing committee was created months later to continue reviewing the city’s trash and solid waste policies and find ways to encourage recycling.

But Dumas complained the committee became too political and was hamstrung by councilors and community members trying to cut all ties with Casella. The company’s subsidiary, Pine Tree Waste, collects the city’s household solid waste. Another subsidiary, KTI Biofuels, sorts construction debris at a Plourde Parkway facility.

Dumas resigned the committee earlier this month after councilors declined to consider letting Casella change the KTI operation, moving Pine Tree Waste’s headquarters there.

“It was an option that would have meant real money for the city, with very little risk,” Dumas said. “They just didn’t want to think outside of the box. If that’s the case, what hope does the committee have of doing anything innovative?”

Councilor Betty Dube said she’s fine to let the committee expire.

“I think it’s basically dysfunctional,” Dube said. “Nothing has come forward from it since it was established. There’s just too much mistrust among the members and with the public to be useful.”

Both said the city is moving forward with solid waste policy changes with or without the committee. Staff is reviewing ways to increase recycling, possibly bringing Casella back in to manage a single-sort recycling program.