If new city recycling rules are forcing you to switch to a larger brown garbage cart, the move may not cost you $51.75 if the Manteca City Council Tuesday approves the second reading of an ordinance change that allows the city manager to waive the fee.
City Manager Tim Ogden has indicated if the council approves the change for a second time as required by law, instead of waiting the usual required 30 days to go into effect he will immediately suspend the switch out fee for 90 days starting Wednesday.
As of a week ago, 500 people had already signed up at the finance department at the Civic Center or solid waste office on Wetmore Street for larger brown carts.
While there may be no charge for switching to a larger container, the move will result in a higher charge for garbage collection. The monthly charge for a 32-gallon brown cart is $28.48, a 64-gallon cart is $30.28, and a 96-gallon cart $31.97. To go from a small to medium cart would be an additional $1.80 a month and from the medium to large is $1.69 a month. If someone went from a small to large cart the monthly increase would be $3.49 a month.
Blue carts can now only be used for California Redemption Value (CRV) containers, No. 1 and No. 2 plastic containers, clean corrugated cardboard, and tin cans.
All paper, newspapers, magazine, paperboard boxes uses for everything from cereal to shoes, Styrofoam, glass, plastic bags, and all plastic containers that do not have No. 1 or No. 2 on the bottom must now go into the brown garbage cart.
There is a two-month grace period — December and January — where residents will be allowed to work on changing their recycling habits. Only warnings will be issued at some point during the two months.
Then in February county conservation corps workers will go ahead of collection trucks on pick up days to inspect the contents of blue carts. Those with any of the wrong items will be tagged and not picked up. If it happens a second time, the city will seize the blue cart.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
