The trucks needed to pick up your garbage every week aren’t cheap.
The City Council tonight is expected to approve the purchase of four new solid waste trucks — all powered by compressed natural gas — for $1,410,000.
That will allow the replacement of:
uone front loader used on commercial routes to tip bins for $360,000.
utwo side loaders primarily on residential routes to tip carts for $400,000 apiece.
uone roll-off truck that collects the large open top dumpsters used for major clean ups for $250,000.
You may not see the trucks on city streets for 18 months to two years. That’s due to the backlog of orders as demand has jumped for CNG powered solid waste collection trucks to meet California’s tightening air quality standards.
The city will take delivery just about the same time as the food waste to fuel system becomes operable. Manteca will use the compressed gas that process produces to eventually power all 24 solid waste trucks that currently run on diesel. Solid waste trucks have a typical lifespan of 10 years.
The city did not order replacement garbage trucks as scheduled last fiscal year as there was inadequate funding in the solid waste enterprise fund. The new garbage rates that residents and commercial accounts started being charged in March will allow the truck replacement program to go forward.
The monthly rate structure as adopted will be phased in from March 2017 through January 2021. The rate charges for carts primarily used by residential accounts are as follows:
It would take the 35-gallon cart from $19.78 to $30.67 for a $10.85 per month increase.
It would take the 65-gallon cart from $25.49 to $32.61 for a $7.12 per month increase
It would take the 95-gallon cart from $30.02 to $34.33 for a $4.11 per month increase.
It would take senior low-income cart service from $12.72 to $19.72 for a $7 per month increase.
Manteca over the years has adopted new technology as well as reorganized routes to maximize the use of equipment and personnel and minimize costs to ratepayers.
Twenty-four years ago, the city was using standard manual collection that allowed a drive to do 350 homes in one day. The city the switched to semi-automated that increased efficiency so one driver could collect from 750 homes a day. Now with the fully automated system a driver can pick up trash at as many as 975 homes per shift.
 The City Council meets at 7 p.m. tonight at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com