Willow Glen Resident
Letters & Opinions
San Jose needs a better trash, recycling system
Something doesn't smell right in San Jose, and plenty of residents can point to the culprit--the city's proposed rate hike for trash and recycling services.
San Jose homeowners like Willow Glen resident Chet Campanella blame the entire proposed rate hike on government inefficiency. He doesn't understand how the service can increase by almost 48 percent in three years. Currently, single-family homes are charged $20.15 per month. If the rate hike passes, the monthly charge would reach $31.22 by the third year.
According to San Jose residents, the problem lies in the illogical way the city handles the entire process, and they certainly have a point.
For starters, it appears that the city has created a complicated and messy approach to picking up trash, yard clippings and recycling. The city plans to use three different companies to get the job done. Garden City Sanitation will collect garbage in the Rose Garden and South, East and North San Jose, and GreenWaste Recovery will collect yard clippings. GreenWaste Recovery also gets the contract to collect yard clippings and street sweeping citywide, while GreenTeam will handle garbage collection and recycling in West San Jose and Willow Glen.
Why does San Jose require three different outfits to get it all done? Even after the Norcal scandal, the city had more than a year to consider streamlining its trash service.
Maybe the city of almost 1 million residents should look to its neighboring cities--Campbell, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos and Saratoga--and learn from them. Those communities also renegotiated their garbage and recycling contracts last year and decided that one service provider could do the job efficiently and in a fiscally sound manner.
West Valley Solid Waste Management & Recycling took over garbage and recycling services in March in the West Valley communities, and the process functions well, and there is no mess left on the roads.
In those cities residents have three bins--one each for trash, recycling and yard clippings. Residents choose appropriate-size bins to accommodate their needs, and each week the bins are lined up neatly on the street. There are no yard clippings on the ground, no tree branches, leaves or grass piles blowing around.
In San Jose, the yard waste service is particularly problematic, since most residents do their yard work on the weekend, which means yard clippings sit out on the street for days until the trash is picked up. Then it takes two vehicles to collect the clippings--a claw-like machine to scoop them up and another vehicle that follows behind where the clippings are dumped. If all yard clippings were placed in one bin by the homeowner and one vehicle picked them up, wouldn't that save gas, manpower and whatever damage those claw-like trucks do as they scrape along the asphalt?
In addition, even after the yard waste is picked up there is still a mess that requires follow-up by a street sweeper. Another vehicle--extra manpower, more fuel--to clean up the residue the other trucks leave behind.
Why not three bins and one service provider? That certainly makes more sense, especially with the rising cost of labor and gas and a troublesome projected $20 million budget deficit.
There has got to be a better, less costly way to keep the city clean and green, because the current method leaves everyone wanting.
Homeowners would probably accept a slight bump in rate hikes if the service justified the cost. But when it's less than stellar to begin with, and the city wants to slap homeowners with a significant increase to boot with no service improvement, San Jose residents have the right to complain.
The San Jose City Council May 8 session will discuss the proposed rate hike at 7:30 in city council chambers, 200 E. Santa Clara St.
