Scandalous Recology wants you to pay more for garbage collection

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Just two months after raising San Francisco’s garbage collection rates by nearly 9%, garbage collection monopoly Recology has filed a bid to double them again.

Recology said in a press release today that the monthly fee for a standard three-bin household waste collection—garbage, recycling, and composting—is significantly lower in San Francisco than in Oakland or San Jose. In particular, San Francisco’s monthly rate of $46.87 is 18% lower than San Jose’s.

Consequently, the company has asked the Comptroller’s Office to approve a request for a 3.9% average rate increase on October 1, and then a 2.17% increase on October 1, 2024, bringing the amount Recology charges residents to just under 50 dollars a month. .

“Even with the increase, rates for San Francisco residents will remain well below the rates currently charged in San Jose and Oakland for comparable services,” the statement said.

Recology cited “an ongoing commitment to greater transparency in rate setting and rate reporting,” language that may strike some San Francisco residents as somewhat smug in light of its past misdeeds. An investigation that grew out of corruption within the Public Works Department found that Recology had overcharged taxpayers by about $23 million.

As a result of a separate pay-per-play scandal, in April 2022 the director of the city’s Department of the Environment resigned after receiving inappropriate donations from Recology.

Popular frustration with garbage collection led to Proposition F of 2022, which reformed San Francisco’s garbage collection while maintaining Recology’s age-old monopoly. The company is actually patting itself on the back for meeting the terms of Proposition F.

Recology has claimed credit for California agriculture.

“Many Northern California vineyards weathered the 2011-2016 drought by applying San Francisco compost to their vine roots,” Friday’s release boasts. “Compost from Recology’s green bin program also helped many local farms weather the 2019-2022 drought.”

To justify the proposed rate hike, Recology listed inflationary pressures on labor costs, unspecified pandemic-related changes in the city’s labor market, the cost of complying with new employee leave rules, and other costs.

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