Los Angeles City Council approves plans to raise trash fees

The Los Angeles City Council has approved a plan to increase waste collection fees, marking the first adjusted fee rate in 17 years. The increase will help close a nearly $1 billion budget gap in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. 

In a 10-1 vote, the city council authorized the Bureau of Sanitation to begin the process under Proposition 218 to update fees for its waste collection service, formally known as the Solid Resources Program. 

As reported by NBC Los Angeles, city officials still must adopt an ordinance to implement the rate adjustment, among other requirements.

The Bureau of Sanitation requested to raise the monthly fee for single-family homes and duplex buildings from $36.32 to $55.94, a 54 percent increase. The rate for apartments with three to four units would go from $24.33 per month to $55.94, a 130 percent increase.

Customers’ bimonthly bills from the Department of Water and Power (DWP) could jump to $111.90 if the rate adjustment moves forward.

City officials aim to begin the fee increase Jan. 1, 2026. DWP only provides billing services, while sanitation establishes fees for trash collection and sewage services, NBC Los Angeles reports.

The rate adjustment would add an 18 percent increase over the next four fiscal years, reaching $65.93 per month by the 2029-2030 fiscal year for single-family homes, duplexes and small apartment buildings. Rate adjustments would affect approximately 743,000 households and another 474,000 residences that receive bulky item collection services.

In addition, the bureau would increase fees for extra bins in 2026, which would increase further each subsequent year:

• refuse containers (60 gallons) would increase from $10 to $15.65;
• recycling containers (90 gallons) would increase from zero to $11.24;
• organics containers (90 gallons) would increase from $7.50 to $16.28; and
• manure containers (60 gallons) would increase from $10 to 23.81.

Barbara Romero, general manager of the Bureau of Sanitation, also known as LA Sanitation and Environment, tells NBC Los Angeles the program has operated at a loss and requires a subsidy from the general fund. She also cited inflation, expenditures such as staff salaries, maintaining vehicles and equipment and overhead costs for the rate adjustment.

“The $36.32 fee has sustained the program until fiscal year 2020-2021, when it was first subsidized by the general fund by $3.9 million. That subsidy has grown to over $200 million in five years,” Romero says. 

The plan also aims to help the city comply with S.B. 1383, requiring 75 percent of organic waste to be diverted from landfills. In the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the city collected a daily average of 720 tons of recyclables, 1,610 tons of organic waste, 15 tons of manure and 3,910 tons of residual waste.

In 2008, organics cost $40 per ton, which jumped to $122 per ton in 2025. The annual cost of organics recycling is approximately $66 million. Recycling went from producing $6 million in revenue to costing $19 million in 2025, sanitation officials reported. New trucks cost $246,000 in 2008 and now cost $500,000, a 103 percent increase in cost per truck.

The city contracted HF&H Consultants, Walnut Creek, California, for the fee study, and the rate adjustments resulted from its findings. The adjustment is still subject to Proposition 218, which requires two public hearings for impacted property owners. 

Mayor Karen Bass is scheduled to release her proposed budget April 21.