SF approves 14 percent garbage-pickup rate hike

The Refuse Rate Board — which includes the city administrator, city controller and general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — unanimously approved Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru’s recommended increase.

With the 14 percent increase, the cost of keeping three 32-gallon bins to collect garbage, recycling and compost will go from $35 to $40 a month for the average single-family home.

The city’s trash and recycling hauler, Recology, asked for a slightly higher jump of 16 percent in October, citing costs from a new five-year labor contract, landfill fees and routes that had to be redesigned to accommodate a surge in recyclable material.

“As we move forward, Recology’s focus remains on providing the best customer service possible while we continue to make recycling and composting easy and convenient, furthering San Francisco’s landfill diversion goals,” Recology spokesman Robert Reed said.

“There is no acknowledgment that seniors are on a fixed income, consume less, generate less, recycle and compost more, and are not contributing to black bin waste and landfills with disposable diapers,” wrote Lou Ann Bassan, who said she is a senior citizen on a fixed income.