Following a lengthy meeting, the San Diego City Council Monday passed a solid-waste fee, breaking a 106-year-old precedent of the city not charging single-family homeowners a fee for trash pickup.
Starting July 1, homeowners in the city will be charged $42.76 a month for three 95-gallon cans — one for trash, one for recycling and one for organics such as yard waste or food scraps — regardless of how much waste they produce. According to the city, around 85% of city residents use the three 95-gallon plan, but those who do not can select a different plan in July and every payer will receive new bins in October.
For those paying for more bin space than they want in the first few months of the fee, they can downsize and pay a lesser fee with a credit given to the address.
“This is not a new cost, this is a cost that has been borne by those who do not receive city services,” Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera said, reminding those at the meeting that Tuesday’s council meeting to approve the city’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget will see the city facing deep cuts.
Then-Council President Elo-Rivera and Councilman Joe LaCava proposed Measure B in 2022 to allow the city to collect a fee for solid waste collection, transport, disposal and recycling, include the cost of bins and force short-term vacation rentals, accessory dwelling units and “mini-dorms” currently receiving city trash pickup to pay for the services.
“Tomorrow we are dealing with a draft budget with $110 million in cuts,” current Council President LaCava said before Monday’s vote. “If we do not pass a trash fee, we would blow an $80 million hole in that budget. Do you want to come up with another $80 million in cuts? I know I don’t.”
When Measure B passed by a narrow margin, it was with the estimate of a trash fee ranging from $23-$29 to amend the “People’s Ordinance,” passed in 1919. However, this was with the assumption that the city served 285,000 households.
The Environmental Services Department, when faced with the prospect of a new fee, counted the number of households the city served following the election and came up with 226,495 — a nearly 60,000-household difference.
As a result, when a cost study came back in April 2025, the fee jumped to $36.72 per month on the low end and $47.59 on the high. That received almost universally negative feedback from the public, so a revised fee schedule then went to a range of $31.98-$42.76 in the first year by delaying certain services such as bulky item pickup and an electric vehicle pilot program.
More than 100 people spoke at Monday’s council meeting, the vast majority of whom opposed the fee. Many of the speakers were older adults concerned with an additional fee on fixed incomes or concerned because they claimed to generate very little trash. Some asked for the option to decline service and handle the refuse themselves.
Others described the city’s initial proposal in Measure B of $29 or less as fraudulent and urged the council to place it up for a vote once again. Several lawyers announced suits or threatened to sue the city for violating voters’ trust.
“Many folks in my district agreed that they needed to pay a fee,” Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert said. “But I’ve been told over and over again they wouldn’t have approved the higher fee.”
Single-family refuse pickup is funded by the city’s general fund, which all residents pay into through property tax — whether they rent or own a single-family home, a condo or an apartment. The city takes away 300,000 tons of trash and 150,000 tons of recycling, compostables and yard waste annually.
“I believe the final product is not what the majority of the city voted for,” said Councilman Raul Campillo, who voted no. “It was my fear that approving this fee would lead the public to not trust this council. The messages from my constituents have proven this fear.”
Campillo proposed that the council adopt a policy that ballot measures have a cost-of-service study done before any voters have their say to avoid the estimate/real cost issue as seen in the trash fee. He described the action as a bait-and-switch.
The ordinance had been criticized for years by activists for being inequitable because although every household pays property tax either directly or through rent, only single-family households received trash pickup at no additional charge. In 2009, a San Diego County grand jury concluded that the ordinance had “outlived its usefulness in a 21st Century society.”
Of the 226,495 homeowners the fee would impact, the city received around 46,000 protests. More than 113,000 would have needed to file a protest to defeat the item before it reached the council.
City documents proposed setting aside $3 million for a financial assistance program that would provide a full subsidy for around 2% of customers, a 50% subsidy for 3.5% of customers or a 20% subsidy for 10% of customers.
Council President pro Tempore Kent Lee said the financial assistance program was “critical” to make the solid-waste fee possible.
Councilwoman Jennifer Campbell apologized to the public for a $4.5 million consulting fee to complete the cost-of-service study, but said it was required by law.
According to city documents released with the ballot measure in 2022, the price of keeping the service as it existed without adding a fee was expected to cost at least $234.7 million between fiscal year 2023 and 2027.
According to the ESD, around 32% of the city’s waste is diverted from landfills, far short of its goals of 80%. City staff said weekly recycling pickup could increase that percentage. Trash diversion is on the minds of city leaders as the Miramar Landfill is projected to be full in 2031.
The council will meet again June 24 to discuss approving the fee via tax roll billing. The fee will go into effect on July 1 and the ESD portal will open on July 15 to allow for residents to select new containers or change their plan. New containers will begin arriving to customers on Oct. 1.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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