COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Rainbow Disposal should be applauded

As a former member of the Huntington Beach City Council and a five-year member of the Orange County Solid Waste Management Commission, I thought it would be useful to share with the public some of the issues associated with trash collection in Huntington Beach. First, it should be pointed out that companies like Rainbow Disposal are privately owned but operate much like a public utility since they are controlled by federal, state, county and city constraints. Let me share some of these with you:

1) State Assembly Bill 939 mandates that all cities and counties in California had to reduce the waste hauled to dumps by 50% by the year 2005. Failure to do so could result in a fine on the jurisdiction of $10,000 a day. This means that 50% by weight of all trash collected in Huntington Beach in 2000 had to be reduced by 50%. This was accomplished. It is very likely this reduction will increase to 75% in the near future.

The new proposed three-container system enables a greater efficiency in separating recyclables than the “everything in one container system” we use today. Thus, the city can more easily maintain the 50% or any higher percentage reduction of trash being hauled to the dumps.

2) The new system requires three containers that can be mechanically loaded. The cost of the containers is borne by Rainbow Disposal and is not passed through to the homeowner. As an aside, it should be noted that the cost of the trash collection to citizens is part of a contract negotiated with the city. This contract contains a formula that is governed by three factors and three factors alone: inflation as defined by the Federal Consumer Price Index, landfill dumping fees and fuel costs.

3) The federal smog-reduction laws in the Clean Air Act as administered by the South Coast Air Quality Management District and California Air Resources Board has required that diesel-powered trucks be phased out and be replaced with natural gas-driven equipment or other lower-polluting systems. Failure to do so could result in the shutdown of any noncomplying jurisdiction by the above-mentioned agencies. It should be noted that in addition to the capital costs of the new trucks and the compressed natural-gas filling station, the new trucks get poorer mileage, have higher maintenance costs and have a shorter life than diesel-powered trucks. There is some benefit to the city, which must also convert many of its vehicles to natural gas, in that Rainbow Disposal has agreed to let the city vehicles use the new fueling station at Rainbow Disposal’s cost.

In closing, I should emphasize that Rainbow Disposal has been a good corporate citizen for more than 50 years. The company has often not passed through the full-cost trash pick-up allowed by the contract with the city. Rainbow Disposal has provided free trash pick-up at many city events, and has made donations to many charitable organizations in Huntington Beach.

Keeping the environment clean is costly. Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley are among the last cities in Orange County to convert to a more environmentally friendly trash-collection system. Rainbow Disposal should be applauded, not castigated, for the conversion to the new system while mitigating pass-through cost to the citizens.