SF has a trash problem. Is Recology to blame?
It’s as San Francisco as dutch crunch rolls and shattered car windows: garbage bags piled next to public trash cans. This one alone, at Polk and Broadway, hosts 10 or more large trash bags every week.
It’s a citywide problem, from City Hall…
…to tony Union Street:
The city’s taken extreme measures to deal with the excess refuse. DPW trucks roam the streets, endlessly picking up trash. Neighborhoods organize cleanups. Streets form “Community Benefit Districts” to provide supplementary trash cans, like the one below, but these often receive the same treatment.
These bags are easy targets for the homeless to tear into. Examples from Japantown last week:
Here, the owner of the laundromat at Hyde and California performs a daily ritual: cleaning up last night’s trash heap:
What’s the source of all this dumping? Street people don’t bag their trash - they just toss it outside their tents. And housed people use SF’s trash service, Recology, to remove their waste. Right?
Right?
Well, sort of. You see, Recology lets you choose how much trash you’d like them to collect. You can pay enough to handle your weekly needs, or pay less, and dump the remainder on the street. At least the guy below wraps his household trash in small bags and puts in it, not beside, the can.
My neighbors aren’t this thoughtful. Time and time again, I see them leaving white Costco trash bags outside the public can on our block.
I wondered how much money this scofflaw behavior was really saving them. So I called Recology, posed as a building resident, and asked what it would cost to add another 64 gallon bin. The customer service rep (who, it must be noted, was the nicest man ever), took a deep breath.
“Well. It’s complicated.”
It didn’t seem complicated. Recology publishes exact residential pick up rates. An additional 32 gallon bin would cost $7.33/month.
“I’m going to have to calculate this on the computer. Can you please hold?”
Sure, I told World’s Nicest Man. As I waited, I imagined him inserting a punch card into room-sized 1960’s computer and waiting patiently for results to clatter out on a ticker tape, all while fiddling with his slide rule.
Five minutes later, he got back to me.
“You’re paying $631 now, and an additional 64 gallon bin will cost you $256 per month.”
“Wait”, I protested, “Your website says it’s only $7.33 for a 32 gallon bin. So I’d just need two of those, right?”
“Well,” he repeated, “It’s complicated. See, your building is technically commercial. Plus, you’ve selected three day per week pickup.”
“Um…” I said, trying to process all this faster than his room-sized computer. None of it made sense. The building I was pretending to live in was residential, and I was pretty sure Recology only woke me up at 5AM once a week.
“I could switch you to one day per week pickup if you want.” he said, trying to be helpful, since that’s what nice guys do. On the verge of blowing my cover, I told him I’d think it over, and hung up.
After hearing those prices, I could understand why residents would be incentivized to dump their trash, especially if there were no repercussions for doing so.
Which leads us to the other reason for SF’s trash epidemic - nonexistent law enforcement. See that big red sign, in multiple languages, warning against dumping garbage? It threatens a $1,000 fine.
And in Dallas, Denver, or Miami, you might actually have to pay it. But I’d be surprised if a single soul has ever had to here, despite the fact that the trash is probably easily traceable to its owners.
When there are no consequences for bad behavior, law abiding citizens lose, and bad actors get a free lunch.
What’s the solution here? First, Recology pricing has to change to discourage dumping. Flat fees based on the number of occupants/building units is probably the way to go, with some reasonable maximum. Second, law enforcement needs to be deployed to deter this behavior. While it may seem like a waste of time for SFPD to dig through garbage and cite dumpers, it’s better than sidewalks full of trash.