Curbside Changes Coming To Foster City

Foster City residents will find it easier to carry out their recycling resolutions come New Year's Day, thanks to a new recycling system and provider.

The garbage services contract was recently renegotiated by Foster City, and the new provider Recology, of San Francisco, will begin service on Jan. 1.

"Our residents can expect some exciting new enhancements to their collection services in January, which will add convenience and more recycling options," said Foster City public works engineer Laura Galli.

Allied Waste, is the current service provider for Foster City and the 11 other member agencies of the Rethink Waste Joint Powers Authority. In July 2005, the contract was put out for bids for the first time by the Rethink Waste JPA in advance of the Allied Waste contract expiring. Rethink Waste made its recommendation in August 2008, and the 12 cities then negotiated their contracts with Recology separately.

Contract service negotiations have been completed, and Rethink Waste is in the process of evaluating rates.

"There's a formal rate setting process that Foster City goes through annually, based on rate reports submitted by Recology and Allied Waste. We'll be doing that this month and next month,"said Monica Devincenzi,  recycling outreach and sustainability manager for Rethink Waste . "Once they have that information, they can evaluate the current rates and what the requirements would be to ensure the rates cover the process."

A decision will be made by the end of the year and public notices will be sent out prior to a public hearing on the issue.

Currently Allied Waste collects garbage weekly and picks up recycling and compost waste every two weeks. Recycling is a "dual stream" process, with paper products being separated from bottles and cans.

Under the new contract with Recology, recycling and compost waste will be picked up weekly along with garbage. Recycling will be condensed into a single stream process, and will no longer need to be sorted.

"The core services are pretty standard across the board," said Devincenzi. "The biggest change that is coming is that we're making the program simpler and expanding the types of materials that will be accepted with our new CartSMART program"

Residents will be receiving three new carts with wheels and lids. The black cart will be used for garbage, blue for recycling and green for compost. Foster City is scheduled to receive new carts beginning Nov. 18. Recology will return in December to deliver two-gallon kitchen pails to single family homes for residents to use as a convenience for collecting kitchen scraps to empty into the green compost cart.

Devincenzi says residents may begin using the new black carts as soon as they arrive, but the recycling and yard waste collections from the blue and green carts will remain every other week until January,  when weekly service begins and residents can add food scraps in with their yard trimmings.

A community meeting to introduce the new system will be held Nov. 10 from 6:30pm to 8 pm at City Hall.

"It's a great way to learn about the carts and see them up close and personal," Devincenzi said. "We'll also discuss how to get rid of the old containers and answer any questions." 

For more information, visit RethinkWaste.org.