Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Eureka Garbage Rates Likely Rising

And, no, this doesn't seem to be the increase related to the start of mandatory garbage pick up on January 1st. Seems the Humboldt Waste Management Authority has seen their expenses go up. No surprise there.

Still, as someone pointed out in the Times- Standard comments, fuel prices have been going down as of late. Also, City Garbage will get something like a 200% increase in business starting December 1st, depending on how you crunch the numbers, although they'll also have added expenses as a result.

As another comment, Freedom Lover, pointed out:

Gee, what a surprise. A big fat fee increase coming right on the heels of a mandatory collection policy. Has any unfunded mandate ever failed to screw the people? I'm sure Eureka can look forward to more "well justified" fee increases in the near future.

Worst part is, there'll be no alternative to ever higher garbage pick- up prices now that the City is forcing everyone into garbage service. No alternative besides burying garbage in your back yard or someone else's. This isn't looking good already.

4 Comments:

At 12:08 PM, Blogger Hayduke said...

The rate increase is annoying, but it is needed to cover a deficit in the account that has developed over the last few months due to higher costs to haul the garbage to the central valley. Coming on top of the new mandatory garbage ordinance is bad timing and will for sure make a lot of people unhappy.

If fuel prices stay at their current levels you might expect a future rate decrease when the deficit is payed off, but when was the last time you saw a rate lowered on anything?

 
At 5:05 PM, Blogger Capdiamont said...

More than that Fred, with the economy as bad as it is, people are not buying recyclables. There is a glut of them. That means less money for these companies, and the revenue shortfall has to come from somewhere.

 
At 5:42 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

Good point. Decades ago I remember watching some TV show that was covering the then emerging recycling industry. They focused on newspaper recycling. They showed warehouses of newspapers people turned in that they didn't have anything to do with, at least at the time. They just had too much newsprint.

I wonder how the market for recyclables is actually doing now?

 
At 9:29 PM, Blogger Joel Mielke said...

"No alternative besides burying garbage in your back yard or someone else's."

Don't be giving the sluggards any ideas. Why do you think we need mandatory pick-up service in the first place?

 

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