WM receives 10-year contract extension with Hayward, California

Waste Management of Alameda County (WMAC) has been awarded a 10-year extension of its exclusive franchise to provide garbage, organics and recycling services to the city of Hayward, California.

The agreement will maintain and enhance popular features in addition to providing standard collection and recycling service—including free prescheduled pickups of larger bulky items, distribution of garden-ready bags of compost and free self-haul disposal vouchers for use at the Davis Street Transfer Station.

It also provides for a new fleet of recycling trucks dedicated to Hayward service, new public sidewalk trash and recycling containers and replacement of residential and commercial service carts with new receptacles to correspond with a new California-required color scheme of grey/black, blue and green for refuse, recycling and organics, respectively.

Additionally, the new arrangement puts the city and WMAC on course to potentially increase Hayward’s annual rate of diverting discarded material from landfills from 73 percent to about 83 percent by the year 2032.

Through the term of the extension, the new agreement carries forward current consumer price index rate increases of 3 percent to 6 percent per year to ensure WMAC employees are paid fairly and kept up to pace with the cost of living. A one-time rate increase of 7.88 percent effective at the outset of the contract on March 1, 2023, was negotiated primarily to cover new vehicle and container expenses. At year five, WMAC also will receive a one-time return-on-investment rate increase up to 5.5 percent.

To encourage separation of refuse, recyclables and organic material and to adhere to new state law, service trucks will be equipped with monitoring cameras—and contamination and overage surcharges of $25 per cart and $75 per larger bin may be imposed for repeat violations after a four-month community education campaign.