Council OKs Boost in Garbage Rates

The El Cerrito City Council Tuesday night unanimously approved rate increases for the weekly curbside collection of trash, green waste and recycling materials.

The new rates, which take effect Jan. 1, are the first in two years.

No one spoke during the time allotted for a public hearing before the council vote.

The monthly rate for garbage and green waste for a typical home with a 35-gallon blue garbage container will rise to $23.08 from the current $21.61, while the rate for curbside recycling pick-up will go to $8.75 from the current $8.64, according to a staff report prepared for the meeting. (The report is attached to this article.)

The boost for all three containers would be 5.2 percent.

Those with 20-gallon blue garbage containers will see their monthly bill for garbage and green waste rise to $16.13 from the current $13.64, while the recycling rate will increase to $8.75 from the current $8.54. The sizes of the green waste containers (which are green in color) and the recycling containers (gray) are the same for all households.

The cumulative increase for all three containers for households with 20-gallon garbage cans would be 12.2 percent.

City Environmental Analyst Garth Schultz, who manages the Recycling Center, acknowledged that the new rates could reduce the incentive for switching to the 20-gallon cans since they narrow the difference between the rates charged to 35-gallon customers and 20-gallon customers.

But, he said, encouraging "migration" to the smaller can and thus reducing the amount of trash diverted to landfills, remains a long-term goal of the city, and that the overall difference in rates has remained stable for the past several years. One reason for the relatively higher increase for 20-gallon customers is that more customers have been migrating away from the 35-gallon containers, thus resulting in less income for the city's garbage-hauling contractor, East Bay Sanitary.

The staff report says the city now has 6,260 customers with 35-gallon containers and 3,272 customers with 20-gallon containers. 

A slide that Schultz displayed during his presentation to the council compared the totals since 2009 paid for all three containers by customers with 35-gallon containers with the totals paid by those with 20-gallon containers.

The amount owed by 20-gallon customers under the new 2013 rate will be $29.99, which is $7.79 more than they paid in 2009, according to the slide. The amount charged to 35-gallon customers, $39.99, will be $7.93 more than they paid in 2009. (A photo of the slide is attached to this article.)

Mayor Greg Lyman noted the city "policy of reducing the size of the can and therefore reducing the amount of waste. ... If you have a smaller can, then you're going to hopefully find other places to put your composting, your food waste and your recycling."

On the new rates set for 2013, he said, "We did close the gap a little bit between the 20-gallon can and the 35-gallon can this year, and I can support that because of the revenue issues around migration. But I would encourage staff to monitor that and next year ... we should be encouraging continuation of migration to the smaller can, reducing the opportunities for people to, on Christmas Day, be quick and lazy and not take the time to sort the wrapping paper and their bows and their plastic and such, and not just throw it in the bigger blue can that they have outside because they don't want to take the time to sort it."

For more background on the rate increases, see the earlier Patch article, "El Cerrito Garbage Rates Going Up?"

LEED Platinum certification for Recycling Center

The mood of the council meeting was celebratory during a presentation on the city's relatively new Recycling Center being certified as LEED Platinum, which is the highest rating for green buildings. (See Patch article, "Highest Green Rating for Recycling Center.")

"I'm here to actually congratulate you and all our residents for this great achievement," city Environmental Services Division Manager Melanie Mintz told the council. 

"We just found out last week that we achieved certification as LEED Platinum with the U.S. Green Building Council certification process," Mintz said. "And, as you may or may not know, that is the highest level of certification we can receive, so it's a pretty tremendous accomplishment."

Mintz said the distinction places El Cerrito in a distinctive group, with only 17 other local governments in California having LEED Platinum buildings. She gave a slide presentation on usage data and background of the Recycling Center and on the LEED certification process. (Her presentation is attached to this article.)

Also addressing the council were representatives of the project architect, Noll & Tam Architects, the builder, Pankow Builders and the U.S. Green Building Council.

"I'd like to add ... my thanks to our city staff, who are really the ones who made this happen," said Councilwoman Janet Abelson, who has taken an active role on the council in promoting environmental initiatives. "I'd like to individually acknowledge Garth Schultz and Melanie Mintz and Jerry Bradshaw (public works director), and I'm sure I've forgotten somebody, but I think all of them worked together very hard as a team to make our city a better place that we can all be proud of for a very long time to come."

-----------------------------

Don't miss any hometown news. Get the day's headlines and events – plus any breaking news alerts – by subscribing to the El Cerrito Patch email newsletter.