Green bin implementation hikes up trash bills

GRF BOARD RECAP

by Ruth Osborn

Communications Director

At the Aug. 26 GRF Board of Directors meeting, upon the recommendation of the Facilities Committee, the board approved a proposal from Athens Services to extend its contract by five years and include a 10% rate increase, effective as of Aug. 1, with more hikes to come.

The rise in trash collection rates is mostly attributed to SB 1383, an unfunded law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2016 that requires mandatory organic (food and green) waste pick up, which has increased trash collection costs. According to Randon Lane, Athens Services vice president of government affairs, disposal rates at the Orange County Landfill have almost doubled from $37 to $70 per ton. The new organics processing mandate also requires a state-approved facility for disposal, and those rates have soared from $27 a ton to process green waste to $125 per ton to handle greenplus- food waste.

Athens Services’ current five-year contract will expire July 31, 2027. The contract was put out for bid in 2022. Athens was the only bidder out of several solicited contractors because of Leisure World’s specially fabricated bins.

Currently increases are expected to be 23.31% over the next two years. Specifically, the contract required a 10% rate increase that was effective Aug. 1, with implementation of the remaining 13.31% on Jan. 1, 2026. It also defers additional rate increases to Jan. 1, 2027, which will align future adjustments with the calendar year and GRF’s budget cycle.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, the contract will move to an annual rate adjustment based on trash-CPI plus 1%. The company is trying to mitigate the volatility of increases by moving cities, counties and other customers, including Leisure World, into contracts that calculate rates based on a trash consumer price index (CPI). The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the trash-CPI specifically for trash collectors. Typically, this has been a 3% annual increase.

The 2025 GRF budget allocates $180,000 for trash collection and is still in the black. The 2026 budget could see an increase to $210,860.