San Diego City Council voted 6-3 on April 14 to move forward with a public hearing to consider charging single-family homeowners $47.59 monthly for trash pickup.

Public testimony and council deliberations were disrupted somewhat by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake, which caused the council meeting to be displaced from the City Administration Building to the San Diego Civic Theatre, where council members set a June 9 public hearing date on the new proposed trash fee. The council also asked the City’s independent budget analyst and staff to come up with a set of cheaper trash alternatives and mitigation measures to present to the council on June 9.

If ultimately enacted, the new fee would be the first time in over a century that City residents have been assessed for trash collection. The new trash fee would allow Environmental Services only to recoup the costs to provide trash and recycling services, which is currently paid primarily through the City’s General Fund. The City provides waste-collection services to more than 200,000 residential properties.

This new charge being considered by the council is part of a host of revenue-generating measures the City is seeking to address a projected $258 million budget shortfall. One of those changes recently included doubling most City parking-meter fees from $1.25 to $2.50 per hour.

Under the proposed options presented to the City Council on April 14, Environmental Services plans to provide all customers with 95-gallon blue recycling and green organic waste recycling bins (one each with options to purchase additional bins). For the refuse (trash) bin, customers will have the choice of:

• 35-gallon bin for $36.72 per month.
• 65-gallon bin for $42.88 per month.
• 95-gallon bin for $47.59 per month.

If the City Council approves a trash-collection fee, ESD plans to launch a new customer portal website by mid-July, allowing customers to select their service level and manage their containers. ESD would then begin delivering the new trash and recycling containers starting in October.

The City argues that a monthly trash collection fee will benefit residents in numerous ways, including extending the lifespan of the Miramar Landfill, improving the quality of recyclable materials and finished compost, and lowering recycling process costs. ESD anticipates that a weekly recycling collection program could be launched by July 1, 2027.

“You (council) all need to do this meeting all over,” complained one phone-in caller during public comment on April 14. “Every single thing, including the presentation and all the (initial) speeches, was inaudible to the people who were listening in on Zoom. That is not fair. That is not OK. The people need to be clear as to what this item is all about.”

“The problem is anytime you’re doing any kind of these fees, there is so much against the people because there are not going to be enough people to know to protest it for it not to go through,” argued another caller.

The City Clerk reported that 132 of 136 public comments received during the meeting were opposed to the proposed trash fee.

District 1 Councilmember Joe LaCava said: “We need to reduce the waste going into our landfill to prolong its useful life. If there is anything harder than charging a new trash fee, it is finding a new landfill. We have been presented with a unique opportunity to finally right-size our City service that has been underfunded and limited. If someone can’t support today’s action, then share some other way to come up with $100 million in new cuts – or new revenues – to balance our budget.”

For more information about the proposed trash collection fee, visit cleangreensd.org.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

The City collects residential solid waste (trash, recycling, and organics) from eligible single-family homes and multi-family residential homes. Measure B, passed in 2022, amended sections of the San Diego Municipal Code, known as the People’s Ordinance, to remove a prohibition preventing the City from charging for City-provided solid waste management.

The City has also engaged in a public process to evaluate the solid waste management services it provides to its residential customers, potential areas for service enhancements, and costs of services. This public engagement process has assisted the City in determining the desired service level, which in turn guided the development of a proposed fee schedule allowing the City to recover costs of providing solid waste management to eligible residents.

This February, the City’s ESD Department launched a third round of community outreach and engagement continuing through June. That involves receiving input from residents and interested parties on residential solid waste management services, to help determine the cost of providing those services, and the proposed fee to recover costs from providing those services.