Already hit with hefty garbage rate increases this year, Atherton residents may have to pay as much as 50 percent more per waste container next year.
Under new proposed rates, the monthly cost of collecting waste from a 32-gallon container would rise 47 percent from $44.01 to $65 and from a 20-gallon container 50 percent from $20 to $30. In addition, rates for a 64-gallon container would climb from $101.23 to $125 and a 96-gallon container from $163.29 to $185.
Households that use three or more green waste containers also would pay more. They currently receive two free containers for plants and other compostable items and pay $6 for each additional container. But next year they could be charged $10 each for the third and fourth green waste containers, and $15 for each container after that.
The Atherton City Council will hold a public hearing Nov. 16 before voting on the proposed rates, which would follow an overall 39 percent increase it approved in May for the current year.
Atherton’s rates are considerably higher than those in the other nine Peninsula cities served by the South Bayside Waste Authority. A key reason for that is because the town’s landscaped residential lots are so large, according to the findings of a council subcommittee. Though much smaller than most of the other cities, Atherton produces the fourth highest amount of green waste.
Even so, it is not the only city expected to be hit with a rate increase next year. Costs related to waste collection services provided by Recology San Mateo County since Jan. 1 are expected to rise at least 10.9 percent next year and 6.4 percent the following year, according to the authority’s documents. Those additional costs are due to a combination of employee raises, higher disposal and processing fees, a contractual tie to consumer price index increases and remaining debt payments to the previous hauler, Allied Waste.
The board of the South Bayside Waste Management Authority is scheduled to approve the 2012 costs at a special meeting on Thursday.
Besides Atherton, the authority oversees waste collection and recycling in Belmont, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos and San Mateo, as well as unincorporated San Mateo County and the West Bay Sanitary District.
Email Bonnie Eslinger at beslinger@dailynewsgroup.com.
