Voters in the city of San Diego approved Measure B in 2022, a ballot measure that would change the city’s municipal code regarding trash and recycling pickup for residential properties, which, for some, is free — for now.
Fast-forward to 2024, and city leaders are hosting community meetings to discuss fees for the service and how to improve collection service.
“This includes learning more and providing valuable feedback about possible new service enhancements and fees for residential trash and recycling collection services in San Diego,” said San Diego Waste Reduction Division deputy director Andrea DeLeon.
San Diego provides free pickup for around 285,000 households, according to DeLeon, which includes single-family homes and residential complexes with four or fewer residences.
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City leaders are receiving feedback now about the changes that will likely happen.
“We are hearing a couple of different things from the public," DeLeon said. "About 80% of our customers are very satisfied with our services, but we know that there’s room for improvement. Some of the top concerns we’ve heard from our customers are that they’d like for us to address missed collection, making it easier for them to replace broken containers and also understanding better how the green bin organic waste recycling program works."
The city would see an increase in revenue if a new trash and recycling services fee is added.
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“We will be looking at implementing a fee for trash collection,” City of San Diego Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica said. "That’s something the voters approved two years ago, and it could generate up to around $80 million a year or so."
After gathering information and feedback the ball will be in the court of city councilmembers, according to DeLeon.
“This information will then be summarized and presented to city council early next year, in 2025, in which the city council will then use this information to inform their decisions and ultimately make the final decision if any potential new fees or service enhancements,” DeLeon said.
Any changes made by city council regarding specific details about a potential new fee, that fee amount and any service changes are expected to go into effect in the second half of 2025.
Although there are likely other factors involved, if $80 million were paid equally by 285,000 customers, that would break down to about $280 a year, or about $23 per month. Of course, if consumers had to pay by weight or the frequency of pickup, that figure could change dramatically.
