Garbage rates will increase by about 11 percent a year for the next five years after Council unanimously approved a five-year schedule of solid waste rates at its June 13 meeting.
The new rates, effective from August 1, 2023, and annually thereafter, will fund enhanced sanitation services, recycling programs, and solid waste collection, while aligning with state requirements and sustainability goals.
Yvonne Yeung, the Resource Recovery and Recycling Manager, said the new rates are necessary to meet the increasing community needs and prioritize a clean and safe environment.
"A total of 93 essential workers provide seven day a week services to the community, including the recycling of blue bin materials, composting of green bin materials, collection of landfill trash, household hazardous waste, street sweeping, illegal dumping cleanup and public education in order to keep Santa Monica clean, safe and sustainable," she said. "It takes $37 million each year for RRR to provide these services including responding to 180 illegal dumping and bulky item collection requests per day, which is the number one most requested 311 service in the city."
The City Council’s decision to adjust the rates comes after their support for a rate adjustment at a previous study session on February 28, 2023. This adjustment follows a three-year freeze on rate increases, with the last solid waste rate increase approved in 2014.
"These services are primarily funded by the solid waste rates, which have been frozen for three years in 2020 2021 and 2022 during the COVID 19 pandemic to protect customers during financially uncertain times. Meanwhile, rising costs and a stronger demand for a cleaner and greener city means a rate adjustment is absolutely needed now," said Yeung.
The approved rates will support various enhanced services, including the provision of organics recycling services to all customers to comply with State requirements under Senate Bill 1383. The City will also increase alley cleaning frequencies, establish a Bulky Item Illegal Dumping Response Team to address dumping hotspots, support volunteer-organized community cleanup activities, service protected bicycle lanes, and provide additional zero waste outreach and education. These initiatives aim to divert waste from landfills and work towards the City Council’s goal of achieving zero waste by 2030.
In addition to the rate adjustment, the Council also adopted recommendations for multi-family and commercial ratepayers. The restructuring eliminates livable unit charges and water meter charges while bundling street sweeping services into one consistent rate, aligning with industry standards and ensuring consistency among all customer types.
Precise rates will vary based on the service level chosen by customers but under the new system Santa Monica’s rates for multi-family and commercial tenants are among the lowest in the county while single-family homeowners will pay slightly more than counterparts in other places.
Those local rates are a result of the City offering more services than other municipalities and operating an in-house waste system.
Santa Monica stands out as one of three cities in Los Angeles County that provides its own municipally run solid waste management operation to all residents and businesses.
"But it is important to keep in mind that the city also provides more services to its residents at no additional charge, such as on demand door to door household hazardous waste collection and a year round recycling events," said Yeung.
According to Yeung, the rate increases will help address common resident concerns. She said the department recognizes illegal dumping is a community priority but RRR has not had the staffing to provide proactive daily cleanups of the city’s 200 plus miles of streets and alleys after losing a significant number of workers during the COVID 19 budget cuts and restructuring in 2020.
"The new rates would allow us to hire more permanent full time workers to expand the bulky item illegal dumping team," she said. "The team would proactively inspect hotspots that are frequent dumping grounds. The team would also monitor a different section of the city every day, removing items from the ground and separating our recyclable items such as clean and dry mattresses or cardboard and diverting them from the landfill. Proactively cleaning up our streets and alleys more frequently would also reduce the need for residents to report illegal jumping to 311 and lessen the burden on the 311 infrastructure."
According to Proposition 218, the City Council must conduct a public hearing and tally protests received. If there is no majority protest, defined as 50% plus one vote based on one vote per property, the Council can approve and adopt the proposed solid waste rates. Less than 1% of ratepayers objected this year and the new rates will be effective from August 1, 2023, onwards.