Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "bins"

Green waste on-the-street pickup rates could rise

2011-04-07T00:45:48Z

Loose-in-the-street green waste pickup may become more expensive for residents, according to comments made by City Council members Tuesday night.

During a discussion of green waste at Tuesday’s council meeting, the council asked city staff to prepare detailed plans for raising the rates on loose-in-the-street pickup and reducing the level of pickup service from weekly to biweekly. Council members did not make any final decisions on the issue.

Gerald Celestine, a founding member of Friends of Fremont Park, said Wednesday that he thinks loose-in-the-street pickup works better than container pickup for Central City residents.

“We have more trees,” he said. “We have much more green waste.”

The idea of using multiple containers also doesn’t work, he said, because there is not adequate room in the street to place the containers. “Where would people park?” he asked.

The Central City’s situation may be addressed by city staff in the future: The City Council asked staff to provide more information about ways to deal with geographic areas that are particularly leafy.

The city’s systems of green waste pickup – containers and loose-in-the-street – are linked to a 1977 law. Voters passed Measure A that year, which says City Hall cannot force residents to use green waste containers.

While the city says that only 12,121 properties now use loose-in-the-street pickup, it must offer loose-in-the-street pickup because of Measure A.

By contrast, 103,787 properties in the city are using containers now, according to the Utilities Department.

The rate cannot remain at $13.71 per month because there are so few people now sharing the cost burden, according to city staff.

City staff argue that keeping the rates at $13.71 breaks state law Proposition 218, which says utilities rates must correspond to the costs of providing utilities services.

The rates should be higher, according to city staff, because so few people are still using loose-in-the-street pickup that their service is being subsidized by other solid waste rates.

Councilman Kevin McCarty noted Tuesday that city staff would work with the city’s Utilities Rate Advisory Commission on plans to raise rates for loose-in-the-street pickup.

Utilities Department staff has suggested raising rates for weekly loose-in-the-street pickup from $13.71 to $40 per month to match the costs of the service.

Alternately, staff suggested that the City Council could raise rates from $13.71 to $25, but scale down the service from weekly to every other week to align with the cost of service.

Staff also pointed out that the city still provides eight loose-in-the-street pickups each year to customers who use containers.

While council members said they want to explore the ideas of raising rates for pickup, McCarty and Cohn expressed hesitancy about the dollar amounts that staff proposed and noted that they weren’t agreeing to those amounts Tuesday night.

“Let’s not be on the record saying we approve either one,” Cohn said.

Council members also said they want to ask the public to vote in 2012 on whether to repeal Measure A.

“I’d like to go to the voters as soon as possible to take a look at repealing Measure A from 1977,” McCarty said Wednesday. “Clearly, times have changed, and I think we ought to look at reversing course on this 35-year-old policy.”

McCarty said there are a number of benefits to containers, including improved air quality resulting from fewer trucks picking up leaves and cleaner bike lanes.

Utilities Department spokeswoman Jessica Hess said the department has not yet set a date for when the green waste issue will be addressed at City Council again.

“We have a desire to correct the issue,” Hess said. “We are going to work on getting that expedited.”

Read the staff report here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City of Sacramento Announces Its 2010 Free Composting Workshop Schedule

2010-02-23T22:59:03Z

Learn how to turn yard waste into compost and improve the health of your soil! These free seminars include a how-to lesson, a special compost recipe and the ability to purchase a Biostack compost bin for $65 (retails for $129). Each seminar will feature a special lecture on various topics that will help your garden continue to flourish all year long. Composting is great for flower and vegetable gardens and can help conserve water and recycle yard waste. No reservations necessary.

Come join us!

March 13, 2010 8 a.m.-10 a.m.
Southside Park Community Garden
5th and W Streets
Lecture Topic: Adding green manure/cover crops to garden
BioStack Compost Bins will be available at-cost ($65, retails for $129)

April 10, 2010 8 a.m.-10 a.m.
Fremont Community Garden
14th and Q Street
Lecture Topic: Planting summer vegetables
BioStack Compost Bins will be available at-cost ($65, retails for $129)

May 1, 2010 8 a.m.-10 a.m.
J. Neely Johnson Park Community Garden
516 11th Street
Lecture Topic: Planting summer vegetables
BioStack Compost Bins will be available at-cost ($65, retails for $129)

September 18, 2010 8 a.m.-10 a.m.
GEO Garden – Grant High School
1221 South Ave
Lecture Topic: Gardening for Youth
BioStack Compost Bins will be available at-cost ($65, retails for $129)

October 9, 2010 8 a.m.-10 a.m.
Southside Park Community Garden
5th and W Streets
Lecture Topic: Planting cover crops
BioStack Compost Bins will be available at-cost ($65, retails for $129)

Sponsored by the City of Sacramento Department of Utilities Solid Waste Services

For more information about the Compost Seminars, please call 311 or (916) 264-5011.

To Bin or Not to Bin: The story of Sacramento's green waste battles

2009-11-29T17:41:23Z

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.

Decision on green waste bins expected Nov. 17

2009-11-10T05:13:45Z

The Sacramento Utilities Department has delayed for one week its presentation to the City Council on potential changes to green-waste pickup. At its Nov. 17 meeting, the council will decide whether to put a measure before voters to establish the use of bins for green waste.

Bin use would mark a change from the city’s current system of removing piles of green waste from the street with the ‘claw’ and a second vehicle. The City Council was scheduled to consider the department’s proposal Tuesday but staffers are adding more information to their report, said Support Services Manager David Levine.

He said changes to the report will include new information on the cost to the city of placing the measure on an upcoming ballot. Levine noted that green-waste pickup in Sacramento is a “very personal issue to many people.”

If the council decides to seek changes to its current system, it will need to ask citizens through the ballot if they want bins. Sacramento residents banned bins in a 1977 initiative. Voters would need to reverse the 1977 law to allow the city to set up a bin system, according to the department’s report.

The city can't set rules for bins, but it does allow residents in some parts of the city to use them. Over the past five years, more than 70,000 citizens have chosen to use bins, the report states.

The Utilities Department is in favor of bins, calling a container system cheaper and more environmentally friendly than street pickup.

Levine said he had no information on why voters passed the 1977 ordinance.

The text of the 1977 ordinance is on Page 6 of the report.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.