Green bins are not being replaced.<\/a><\/p>\nCritics say the city\u2019s decision to buy 750,000 new cans and dispose of 950,000 existing cans is bad for the environment and helped drive up the $43.60 monthly fee the city began charging customers July 1.<\/p>\n
The City Council voted 6-3 Monday to approve buying the new cans, with support from the same six members who supported the new trash fee June 9.<\/p>\n
They are Councilmembers Joe LaCava, Sean Elo-Rivera, Kent Lee, Jennifer Campbell, Stephen Whitburn and Vivian Moreno.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really important that folks feel a tangible improvement in service delivery,\u201d said Elo-Rivera, contending that goal justified the $65 million expense.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, who was joined in opposition by Councilmembers Raul Campillo and Henry Foster, said the plan to replace so many containers was a key reason she opposed the new trash fee last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think we needed to charge people $45 million for new containers,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s way too high. I\u2019m very sad we are doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city is paying $41.5 million for 750,000 gray and light blue containers and another $23.2 million to have the new containers delivered and 950,000 old containers taken away and recycled.<\/p>\n
City officials say replacing the bins was only a minor factor in the size of the new trash fee, stressing that they are a one-time cost versus a recurring cost like adding bulky trash pickup.<\/p>\n
In addition, the city softened the immediate impact by spreading the cost of the cans over 10 years. That\u2019s because the city is financing its purchase instead of paying the entire sum up-front.<\/p>\n
Officials also note that more than 75 percent of existing containers are more than 20 years old \u2014 more than double the manufacturer\u2019s estimated lifespan of 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are largely old, brittle and subject to breakage,\u201d said Jeremy Bauer, assistant director of the city\u2019s Environmental Services Department.<\/p>\n
But critics say many of the cans are new or only a few years old because customers are constantly replacing old cans with new ones.<\/p>\n
Bauer said the tracking chips are another key reason for the switch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s essential that we know who our customers are and how many containers they have so that we can charge each one appropriately,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the most practical and efficient way.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Proposition 218 requires government agencies to carefully track their customer base when charging them fees.<\/p>\n
The new colors are also important, Bauer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new light gray and the new light blue containers will allow our drivers to clearly distinguish which containers pertain to paying customers \u2014 ensuring we only pick up from paying customers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In addition, Bauer said many of the older containers would have been replaced no matter what, because customers are being given the chance to pay less if they agree to use smaller trash cans.<\/p>\n
A city website allowing customers to select their container sizes is scheduled to go live Tuesday. Customers must choose by the end of September, and delivery of new bins will start Oct. 6 and last through next summer.<\/p>\n
Customers who lack internet access can call to choose their new containers. Customers will also start receiving mailers this week letting them know about the new website.<\/p>\n
If a customer fails to choose a can size, they will be sent 95-gallon gray and light blue cans \u2014 the largest size. But they will have 30 days to swap those cans out for smaller versions for free.<\/p>\n
City officials say questions can be asked at (858) 694-7000 or by email to trash@sandiego.gov. The city\u2019s trash website is sandiego.gov\/trash-service-updates.<\/p>\n
San Diego residents living in single-family homes or in multifamily developments with four or fewer units must start paying for trash service because of a narrowly approved 2022 ballot measure that repealed a century-old policy giving them the service for free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego finalized a controversial plan Monday to replace hundreds of thousands of trash and recycling bins \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,728,8629,50,80,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-66434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-local-politics","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-top-stories-sdut","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114854968921824281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}