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Redwood City council members gave a resounding yes to increased solid waste collection rates for the upcoming year during a Monday night meeting.
With a motion by Diane Howard and seconded by newly appointed council member Elmer Martinez Saballos, the council voted to pass the 2023 garbage rates, which would increase the 20-gallon bins by $5 to $23.87, the 32-gallon bins by $4 to $38.86 and the 64-gallon bins by $3 to $67.20. Lissette Espinoza-Garnica was absent from the meeting.
The council also approved a 4% increase for unscheduled solid waste services. There is no change in cost for the 96-gallon bins, which remain at $95.31.
“One of the purposes of this rate setting is to realign rates for each cart size with the actual costs of providing solid waste services to each cart size,” said Public Works Director Terence Kyaw in an email. “Per the cost of service analysis, the 96-gallon cart size did not require an increase.”
Recology, the contractor the city uses for solid waste pickup, is increasing its collection services cost by 5% and its disposal and processing costs by 4.1% in 2023, Kyaw said.
The vote comes less than 10 months after city council members voted to approve a previously proposed rate increase, which raised rates of solid waste and recyclable materials by $2 per month for 20-gallon bins; $1 per month for 32-gallon bins; and 1.947% for unscheduled solid waste services.
There have been 10 rate increases since 2018, with five years where rates did not increase, according to the city.
About 85% of residential customers currently subscribe to 20- or 32-gallon carts, Kyaw told members on Monday. Redwood City rate-paying customers who subscribe to the solid waste services number about 17,000, he said.
Kyaw told members the city’s rates for 20-gallon would still be competitive compared to other San Mateo County cities, only above Burlingame, Foster City and San Mateo.
Redwood City reached out to customers in various ways, Kyaw said, including a mailer, which announced the most recent public hearing, sent to residents' homes.
Although the city needed to receive written protests from a majority of parcels— or 8,500 written protests— from customers who receive solid waste services for them not to pass the rates, the city received a total of 15 written protests prior to Monday's meeting.
Jennifer Baker, a Redwood City resident who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, said she thought the “majority vote” rule was “a big ask,” considering that only one written protest was allowed per parcel.
“My building alone has four separate accounts, but according to that rule, only one of us can protest this,” she said.
Redwood City resident Rona Gundrum said she wondered whether the city audited or monitored 20-gallon bins from residents who may overflow their trash bins.
“I have noticed there are quite a few people with 20-gallon cans of trash and their trash cans are overflowing with black bags of trash,” she said. “It seems to me that they should be required to have a larger size trash can and pay more.”
The city does not actively monitor overage, Kyaw said.
“But for those customers repeatedly overfilling their cart, we may charge them or work with them to subscribe to larger cart sizes,” he added.
