New trash fees

Los Angeles City Bureau of Sanitation officials said that the thousands of Los Angeles residents who were mistakenly not charged for the extra-large capacity garbage cans, will be assessed a fee on their Department of Water and Power bill in the next month.
The department said the mistake caused a total loss to the city of $8.5 million, because of its failure to bill the 77,000 Los Angeles residents having extra bins.
Notices were mailed out to residents, but out of those notified, only 1,000 responded by returning their bins.
Those residents who did not return their bins will be charged $5 a month for the brown and black trash bins, which are for horse manure and garbage, and there is a $2.50 charge for the green bins which are for yard waste. There will be no charge for the free blue recycling bins.
City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who presented this issue in May, was angry because of the four-month time period it took for these garbage fees to be put into action.
“You delayed the process arbitrarily just because you wanted to send another notice. I’m telling you–quit stalling. Go get the money,” Alarcon told department officials, adding that the delay had caused a slow down in the key goal of the trash bin program–creating a culture of people in the city who recycle.