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Sunday, March 21, 2010
To Bin or Not to Bin: The story of Sacramento's green waste battles
by Kathleen Haley, published on November 29, 2009 at 9:41AM
Storyline: City Services
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The debate over the Sacramento Utilities Department's desire to use bins for green waste pickup has a familiar ring.
This isn’t the first time green waste has been a hot topic in Sacramento. Green waste disposal was controversial as far back as 1977, when a fierce fight took place between those who wanted bins and those who sought to maintain on-the-street pickup.
Utilities Department Director Marty Hanneman said that staff plan to bring the issue to the City Council on Jan. 21 or Jan. 28. Supporters of the bins argue that their method is cost-effective, while bin opponents say on-the-street pickup is the most convenient system.
The department's position is that bins would be a cheaper and more environmentally friendly method of green waste pickup, according to a Nov. 24 department report. Residents now pay $12.35 per month for on-the-street pickup, while bins would cost $9.37, Hanneman said.
Councilman Robbie Waters also favors bins, Hanneman noted. Waters, whose district includes the Pocket neighborhood, asked the Utilities Department to bring the issue to the City Council, Hanneman said.
If the City Council decides in January that it wants to exchange on-the-street pickup for a bin system, the issue will have to go on a ballot. And there's a historical reason for that.
Voters approved an ordinance in 1977 to ban the city from establishing the use of bins for pickup. When residents put their opposition to bins into law, they made it difficult for the city to change the rules.
Measure A, the 1977 ordinance, includes language requiring a majority of Sacramento voters to overturn or change the law.
A group called Citizens for City Service championed Measure A. The group argued that it is easier for citizens to manage their green waste if the city picks up leaf piles on the street rather than in bins. They also said that a $2 monthly service fee for green waste pickup was affordable.
In the text of a proposal for Measure A, Bolton Phillips of the Citizens for City Service characterized the opposing camp as being made up of residents and certain city councilmembers and staffers.
"[The opponents of Measure A] want us to put all those tons of yard and garden refuse in non-biodegradable plastic bags and other containers before collection," Phillips wrote in the proposal. “They say this will save us money. This is not true. Without the service fee and workers, we will buy expensive plastic bags each week, then spend our valuable time and energy filling them.”
Joseph Coomes, Jr., president of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in 1977, countered Phillips’ points in the text of the proposal for the measure. He objected to Phillips’ argument that residents would have to buy plastic bags.
“THIS IS NOT THE CASE!,” he wrote, using capital letters. “Any box, can or even paper bag of proper size and weight is acceptable. It can easily be drafted into law that plastic bags cannot be used!”
Opponents argued that a bin system would generate savings in taxes of more than $1 million per year.
The proposal notes that opponents of Measure A included Sacramento’s mayor at the time, Philip Isenberg, as well as representatives from the County Taxpayer’s League, Inc. of Sacramento County and the Sacramento Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO.
In 1988, there was an attempt to overturn Measure A through the ballot. But that effort, which was called Measure F, was unsuccessful, according to the Utilities Department's report.
Read the text of the 1977 proposal for Measure A here.
What's going on now with green waste?
Today, in many Sacramento neighborhoods, workers remove piles of green waste from the street with the "claw" machine and a second vehicle.
However, residents in some sections of the city can choose bins instead of on-the-street pickup, according to the Utilities Department's report. About 85,000 residents have chosen to use bins, the report notes.
Bins are now set up through an opt-out system. The city gives bins to certain neighborhoods, and residents must refuse them to maintain an on-the-street pickup method, according to Hanneman. “If you don’t want it, you’ve got to let us know you don’t want it,” Hanneman said.
This means that both systems — bins and on-the-street pickup — are used.
The department, which has twice postponed a presentation to the City Council this month, is calculating the costs of the bin and on-the-street pickup systems, according to Hanneman. Thousands of residents recently joined the bin system, which means that the department needs to update its figures for the City Council, he said.
The changing numbers still show that bins would be cheaper, Hanneman said. “It’s definitely more expensive to do loose-in-the-street than containerized,” he said.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
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Also, it is a pain to rake up the leaves and then try to heave them accurately into the bin. Just logistically, the whole bin thing isn't working right now. For those of us with "mature landscaping" that requires pruning, the whole idea of all the green refuse fitting neatly into one container is just laughable.
SUBURBS:
tree?
lawn lawn lawn
driveway driveway driveway
parking parking parking
DOWNTOWN:
tree tree tree tree tree
driveway? parking?
It is interesting to note that the City Utilities is making absolutely no effort to reach out to residents.
This is because they know residents don't want bins.... so they have resorted to pushing bins with wacky "opt-out" programs. I hope whatever numbers/info they communicate based on that program will be reviewed with deserved skepticism. It's too bad City Utilities is a govt-enforced monopoly... I have no option to cancel their service when I find it unsatisfactory.
You are making some pretty inaccurate assumptions here about the mindset and behaviors of people in the close-in neighborhoods. For example, several of my neighbors and I do compost in our backyards. Many have installed low-water landscaping and water conserving irrigation. Sure, there are many people who don't have a clue about "green"--but I'd say on average the conciousness level in my neighborhood is far higher than the suburbs. And, yeah, we have the guy down the street who waters the gutters 24/7. But if you'd actually read my comment, I said I can understand what the city's trying to do, it's just the logistics that are problematic.
One of the biggest issues for us is the huge number of trees, which we all love, but which regularly drop a ton of leaves and branches this time of year. Far too many leaves to compost in a small backyard set up, and 10-ft branches that, even if I owned a chainsaw, would never fit in the bin.
Question #1 - If you force folks on streets inundated with leaves onto a more cumbersome way to clean them up (bins)... do you really think our streets will be prettier? Put it this way - if I made you clean your toilet with a toothbrush, would you clean it as often?
Question #2 - Since you pro-bin folks admit there are too many autumn leaves downtown to fit in a bin, and the claw would still be needed... doesn't this nullify all or most your proposed benefits of bins? Clogged drains just as likely, mosquitos still have hundreds of places to breed, bikes and cars have bins to dodge instead of leaves, twice the trucks still needed.
Anyways, I'm staying with my plan to cut down my tree if I'm forced on a bin.
I don't have space for a bin. Go green!
I hope you won't cut down your tree, though...that's just too sad. I'll come hug it for you if you want.
But as a consumer, the convenience of the claw is worth the extra $2-3 / month. I would need to pay an undocumented gardener an extra $10 / wk to stuff everything into a bin, and find a place to put the bin.
We have a modest compost pile thats appropriate for our modest garden, and 1 week in October provides enough compost for the whole year.
One other point for those of you in favor of the bin. At a city council meeting several years ago, and more recently at a Land Park CA Annual Meeting folks have justified the use of bins because visitors from LA / SF found our leaf piles "unsightly" (or the resident had just moved from one of these places). Probably not a good tactic IMO (even if true)....nothing turns people away from a well founded argument like the insinuation that Sacramento doesn't measure up to the bay area or LA.
So far, everyone, including the city, seems to think that there are only private lawn cuttings and tree leaves to be containerized. In fact, the vast bulk of "green" waste, which is really brown leaves as the photo shows, is CITY TREE LEAVES dropping on central city streets and sidewalks year round.
Oracle, please explain how you and other bin advocates compost the CITY tree's seed pods of various sizes, tree blossoms, twigs, branches, boards, nails, dog poop, human feces, dead rats, birds, squirrels and large amounts of litter consisting of plastic bags, flyers, magazines, newspapers, glass and plastic glasses and bottles, liquor and beer bottles, cans, coffee cups, half eaten food discarded in styrofoam and plastic take out containers, cigaret and candy wrappings/boxes--all whch accumulate in the gutters and clog the drains YEAR ROUND.
Neither the city or commenters have given a thought either to seniors, disabled and those with back problems, leaf allergies and lung conditions, which hinder their being able to containerize. These people can often sweep this crap off sidewalks, park strips and into gutters but cannot and should not have to handle this disease laden waste and store it on their property.
So Oracle, to you and other composting and containerization advocates I ask, if you insist on penalizing these people, why don't you volunteer to clean up all this polluted waste for them?
1. I live in Oak Park and noticed when the city recently rolled out the bins, it didn't put any out at the churches, apartment and businesses that us commercial services for garbage. It occurred to me that i have been paying for their green trash removal for decades
2. Every morning as I leave for work, I am followed by cavalcade of gardening services pickup trucks on there way to Placer and El Dorado Counties. Every evening these pickup trucks return fully loaded and biulging at the seams with garden refuse, which they then dump in Oak park streets because it doesn;t cost them anything to do it here and it is not available in these counties.
Finally to all the naysayers...ever hear of composting?? Where do you think the earth comes from when every year you meticulously clean every leaf from lawn and then have to apply chemicals because the plants have no renewing source of food.