Garbage And Recycling Rates May Soon Cost Sacramento Residents An Extra 12+ Dollars a Month
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The City of Sacramento may start charging residents an additional 12 dollars and 33 cents a month to cover garbage, recycling, and yard waste collection, along with street sweeping.
The proposed rate change will likely be voted on by the Utilities Rate Advisory Commission in August, with the full City Council voting on it in the Fall.
The increased rates would be phased in during the next few years:
Currently, the average family with a 64-gallon container monthly bill pays $36.89. If the rate hike gets approved, that goes to $39.63 on January 1, 2020; $42.59 in Fiscal Year 2021; $45.78 in Fiscal Year 2022; and $49.22 in Fiscal Year 2023, which is a 31 percent increase from the current rate.
According to the City website, the extra money would "help address:
- More processing restrictions and shrinking markets for recyclables mean increase costs to recycle vs recyclables being a revenue stream
- New costs associated with securing long term yard waste and organics disposal for food waste collection starting in 2021
- Increasing costs for solid waste operations, such as vehicles, maintenance, fuel and disposal fees
- Labor cost increases
- Landfill maintenance expenses"
In addition, street sweeping would happen monthly during February-October. Right now it happens every six weeks.
The Integrated Waste General Manager gave a presentation during a June 26th Public Hearing and gave a number of reasons the rate hike is necessary.
- The City of Sacramento is also expected to add 18-thousand new housing units within the next three to five years. In order to handle the increased homes, Recycling and Solid Waste Services says it will need to add new routes and new trucks to service those routes.
- Part of the rate increase will cover new recycling costs. China passed the National Sword Policy in 2018 requiring all recyclables sold to China to have a contamination rate of only 0.05 percent. The City of Sacramento says, "This policy takes the City's recycling from being revenue producing to a processing expense of approximately $2,000,000 a year."
- Senate Bill 1383 will require all households to keep organic (food) waste separate from garbage starting January 1, 2022. The City needs to secure a processing facility in order to handle the organic and green waste, but the costs associated with securing a facility isn't known yet.
The proposed rates will be presented at another Utility rate Advisory Commission meeting on August 28. It is open to the public and comments are allowed.
