SAN DIEGO (CNS) - San Diego Thursday reminded residents the deadline to set up customer accounts for trash and recycling services for eligible property owners is fast approaching.
San Diegans have until Sept. 30 to choose a service level and size of trash and recycling bins they would like. City crews will begin delivering the bins starting Oct. 6.
The announcement comes after voters narrowly passed Measure B in 2022, which helped repeal "The People's Ordinance" trash collection model and allow the city to charge a monthly fee for solid trash pickup for single-family homes and multi-family complexes with up to four residences on a single lot.
The June approval of the solid waste fee broke 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 began to 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.
Thursday's announcement is the follow-up to that news, allowing for residents to change how large their bins are and pay a different price accordingly.
For residents who may want to switch their service level, they can visit sandiego.gov/trash to see if their residence is eligible and learn about next steps.
"We want to thank the tens of thousands of San Diegans who have logged on to the portal so far and selected their bin size and number," said Jeremy Bauer, assistant director for Environmental Services. "Creating an account empowers customers to track their service and fee history, receive text or email updates from the city, and to manage future container needs.
"Even if you want the default size, it's important to sign up to unlock those benefits. Establishing yourself as our customer also ensures you get the correct containers for your property right from the start of rollout."
That portal above will allow residents to create an account unique to their property. A mailer containing the unique code is being sent to property owners this week, for anyone who may have misplaced an initial notification earlier this year.
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.
Opponents of the waste fee were frustrated, claiming property taxes already paid for trash pickup. Even some initial supporters of Measure B felt they were hoodwinked, citing an estimated trash fee ranging from $23-$29. 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.
New trash bins will be gray instead of black, followed by new, light- blue recycling bins. Deliveries will continue through June 2026. According to the city, around 75% of current bins are 20 years old -- past the service guarantee -- and the new colors will be more identifiable to truck drivers.
After rollout, city haulers will collect only from the new bins; the old black trash bins and dark blue recycling bins will be picked up by the city and recycled. The new bins will have scannable reader tags that will notify drivers as they are picked up, intended to "help identify missed collections and improve efficiency."
New green organic waste bins -- provided to more than 200,000 city households in 2023 -- will not be provided at this time unless a customer doesn't already have one or requests an additional green bin or service change.
Households no longer eligible for city service are required to contract with a private hauler. San Diego is working with these haulers, who have confirmed they have the capacity to serve all transitioning customers.
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.
The People's Ordinance had been criticized for years by activists for being inequitable because although every household pays property tax, 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."
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.
