In culture shift, Berkeley seeks recycling fee

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/29/10 | Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Staff Writer

[SmithL]

Berkeley wants to start charging households and businesses a recycling fee, a move that would end an era in which the city, yearning to encourage recycling, charged only for garbage.

With less trash going into the garbage can, people are shifting to smaller can sizes. That is putting less money in city coffers - even after a 20 percent garbage rate increase last year. But the recycling and composting services once billed as free continue to grow.

"Our (garbage) fee is oversimplified and idealistic," said David Tam, a Berkeley resident and a longtime recycling and reuse activist. "It just needs to be fixed."

Berkeley's fee proposal comes as Alameda County cities face a goal of diverting 75 percent of their waste from landfills by the end of this year. In an imagined future of little or zero waste, curbside pickup fees tied solely to the amount of garbage have a problem.

"All of a sudden, we're picking this stuff up for zero money," said Ken Etherington, the city's solid waste and recycling manager.

Charging for recycling reflects a culture shift in Berkeley and other California communities, where people no longer need to be told recycling is free to do it.

"People recycle like it's brushing your teeth every day," Etherington said.

Some residents, however, dislike the idea of paying for recycling.

"It's a pity to punish us for recycling," said Renee Watkins, 78, a Berkeley resident for 20 years who is careful to sort her bottles and cans every week.

Unlike most Bay Area cities, Berkeley operates its own garbage service and transfer station. It would be one of just a handful of cities in the region to bill households for recycling.

[SmithL]

The People's Republic of Beserkeley can have all the taxes and fees that it desires. I do my best to stay out of that Workers' Paradise.

[unkus]

Stay in Berkley. Colorado is full!

[Logical me]

No incentive to recycle.

[envisio]

No cattle in Berkeley.
That right there tells you there is something wrong with it.

[envisio]

No cattle in Berkeley.
That right there tells you there is something wrong with it.

[FrankR]

""Our (garbage) fee is oversimplified and idealistic," said David Tam, a Berkeley resident and a longtime recycling and reuse activist. "It just needs to be fixed." "

If Mr. Tam was REALLY a dedicated "recycling and reuse activist", he would show his dedication to his cause by waiting at the city dump for each garbage truck, and rifling through the garbage to retrieve all of the recyclables.

But his dedication only goes so far as to want the people do do all the work so he can go on record in the local newspapers as the hero of the recycling world.

California is the perfect place for these folks...a whole country away from me.

[rogue yam]

"Our (garbage) fee is oversimplified and idealistic," said David Tam, a Berkeley resident and a longtime recycling and reuse activist.

The whole Berkeley mindset is oversimplified and idealistic and needs to be adjusted.

[equalitybeforethelaw]

Stick it in a landfill. If it ever gets valueable you can dig it up again. Shoosh, its not like we are sending this stuff into space.

[Izzy Dunne]

No cattle in Berkeley.

they DO have cows, though:

[calex59]

Government, local, state and fed, have given up on any pretense that taxes are for services that benefit the people, such as garbage collection. It is supposed to be a service, one that you pay for and this provides the revenue for running the service(it would run better if it were privatized. In my county it is half/half, the dump is government but the garbage collectors are private). Instead, every city and state(the blue ones)are screaming about, and raising, taxes and how they need to generate revenue. Hence, they are not raising garbage in order to pay for garbage collection but to fatten the coffers of the city of Berkeley.

We need to vote as many of these a**hats out of office that we can, starting at a local level which would be the easiest way to start, as voter fraud is not as rampant at city and local levels.