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As New Recycling Program Rolls In, Locals Worry Their Rates Will Rise

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com)  —   A new recycling program is rolling out in Los Angeles over the next few months and some residents and business owners are concerned their rates will go up.

Florist shop owner Lance Williams says the trash bin at his Playa del Rey store fills up fast.

His trash service, under a program called RecycLA,

"Currently I'm paying about $140 total including taxes and fees. According to the RecycLA brochure, gonna be paying $269 approximately," said Williams.

Business owner Mo Krant says the program also takes away the power to shop around for competitive rates.

RecycLA has awarded contracts to a single provider for each district in LA.

"It's a monopoly. Now all of sudden they can charge whatever they want," says Krant.

LA's Department of Public Work's Elena Stern says RecycLA gets rid of the old wild, wild west of rates.

"This is a fair system with predictable rates," says Stern.

Kwon spoke to one man, a condo owner in West LA, who says his new rates are unfair.

His neighbor, Janet Garstang, was sent estimates showing her rates will go up between 80 and 125 percent.

"No one can afford this," said Garstang.

Stern says there is a way to save money.

"The more they recycle, the less they pay for trash services," says Stern.

The city says the point of the new program is to promote more recycling. But Garstang says the trash area in her building is too small to fit any extra bins.

"We're fully willing to recycle," says Garstang.

Her building does their own recycling already. The new trash provider -- Athens -- sent a statement saying just how much Garstang could save under the new program.

And that would be ... $.25. That's right, 25 cents.

"We could exceed the $.25 by doing it ourself," said Garstang.

RecvcLA rolls out citywide by February.

 

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