MARTINEZ — Residential garbage collection rates won’t go up next year and customers will get more special pickup days, under a 10-year contract extension with Allied Waste.
The existing contract with Allied Waste, which provides residential garbage and recycling collection, expires in January 2013.
In addition to freezing the rates for 2012, the new agreement includes nine free special pickup days per year, up from four, for single-family residences. Those customers will get four recycling and yard waste special pickups, two for trash, two for bulky items such as appliances and furniture, and one “spring cleanup” day.
Multifamily dwellings will get three special pickups each year — two for trash and one for recycling.
The company will now accept cell phones, household batteries and compact fluorescent light bulbs on the special recycling pickup days. Customers who live in single-family homes also can get an extra bin for yard waste or recycling at no cost.
“I think were getting a lot of benefit with this extension,” Mayor Rob Schroder said.
“Adding this second bin at no cost is fantastic because running another truck on a weekly basis is not going to help our streets and roads,” he added.
The new contract also provides benefits to the city.
Allied Waste is giving Martinez a one-time “community impact” payment of $500,000 that the city will use to repair the damage to streets caused by heavy garbage trucks and to maintain storm drains.
Martinez will use an additional $25,000 annual payment from Allied Waste to implement the city’s climate action plan and to meet state goals for diverting waste from the landfills.
The payments will go into the city’s special revenue recycling fund. For the first time, the company also will pick up illegally dumped items at the city’s request and collect litter in some locations.
Martinez residents pay less for a 64-gallon trash can and more for the 32-gallon and 96-gallon can than the average rate paid in neighboring cities, according to the consultant that helped the city negotiate the contract.
Councilwoman Lara DeLaney suggested raising the rate for the 64-gallon can and lowering the cost for the 32-gallon can to encourage more recycling.
“We should be moving people in that direction through financial incentives,” DeLaney said.
In Pleasant Hill, the residential recycling rate rose and many residents downsized to a smaller trash can after the city increased rates on the once popular 96-gallon can in 2008.
Lisa P. White covers Martinez and Pleasant Hill. Contact her at 925-943-8011. Follow her at Twitter.com/lisa_p_white.
