A charge for Recology Del Norte’s recycling service could be included in contract negotiations between the waste collector and the local solid waste management authority.

An ad-hoc committee acting on behalf of the joint powers authority feels that garbage collection rate should be structured in a way that doesn’t give customers the impression that recycling is free, said Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority Director Tedd Ward.

Committee members and commissioners, Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore and public representative Michael Tompkins, will bring that topic before the full DNSWMA board on Tuesday.

“The idea is that if their rate restructuring was approved by the board, each customer would have a basic service charge plus additional charges based on what they are subscribing to,” Ward told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Monday. “Currently, a residential trash customer wouldn’t pay an additional amount based on the size of their recycling cart, but a restructured service rate would probably include a basic charge.”

Recology Del Norte General Manager Jeremy Herber approached the Solid Waste Management Authority board in August with a request to extend his firm’s collections franchise agreement by 10 years. The current agreement, in place since 2011, sunsets in 2023.

Herber asked Solid Waste commissioners to begin negotiating an extension to his firm’s contract after he agreed in July to switch out deteriorating metal blue and brown trash and recycling containers with new receptacles. Replacing 120 containers with concrete ones will cost about $250,000, according to Herber.

Though Recology Del Norte will replace the old containers with the new without increasing garbage rates, Herber said in September the 10-year contract extension will help his firm recoup those costs.

The current contract negotiations also come after some Recology Del Norte customers found that their rates had increased by 6.12 percent on July 1. A rate increase that large is not included in the proposed contract extension, but Recology is asking to change how increases tied to the consumer price index are handled, Ward said Monday.

“Currently, they get 85 percent of that increase and they’re arguing as part of the extension, to charge 100 percent of the CPI,” he said.

Inscore and Tompkins realized during negotiations that before the additional 10 years were over, collection rates would have to be restructured, Ward said. Currently, customers pay based on the size of trash cart they use and can get a larger recycling cart for no additional charge. Ward said it’s possible for a customer with a 30-gallon trash cart to use a 90-gallon recycling cart without paying extra.

After Recology and the Solid Waste Management Authority spent roughly three years trying to get the community to cut back on the amount of garbage it puts in the local recycling stream, Ward said a restructured rate could potentially include a basic charge for recycling and base collections on whether or not a customer subscribes to a particular service, such as brush collection.

According to the Waste Authority’s staff report for Tuesday’s meeting, the need to restructure rates is dependent on current and future legislation and regulations from CalRecycle, the California Air Resources Board and the Water Quality Control Board.

The report also states that the cost to process recyclables will likely continue to increase those who purchase the material, particularly international buyers, reduce the amount of contamination they’re willing to accept. Ward said the reduced level of contamination buyers are asking for, such as less than 1 percent stipulated by China, requires more processing.

“Shifting to a rate structure with a ‘basic service charge’ plus additional charges based on the services to each customer would be more appropriate,” the report states. “And such a change could reduce contamination in the recycling stream.”

Del Norte continues to strive for the 10 percent level of contamination in its recycling stream that’s considered industry standard by most processors, though it's not there yet, Ward said.

The Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority meets at 4 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors chambers at the Flynn Center, 981 H Street in Crescent City. A meeting agenda is available here.

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