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Dear Council Members: I am writing to you to consider a more equitable distribution of the costs for solid waste services in Redwood City. I am a native of Redwood City and have lived here for nearly 70 years. I do realize that the cost of collection and disposal of solid waste is ever increasing. For many years we have been encouraged to use less, throw away less, recycle, and compost. These are good things to do. However, rate increases since 2022 seem to inequitably put the cost burden of those using the smaller bins. These users are likely the elderly, the low income, those who are careful not to waste or throw away. Attached are three tables. Source of the data used was from various pages on the REDWOODCITY.ORG website. I have used the rates for 2022 as baseline and have review the rates for 2023, 2024, and the proposed rates for 2025. Table 1. “Comparison of Garbage Rates 2022 to Proposed 2025 Rate Increase, Percent Per Increase, & Cost Per Gallon by Bin Size” summarizes the comparison of rates based on bin size over this period. In the column labeled “2022” are the solid waste rate charged by the City for the 20-, 32-, 64-, and 96-gallon bins; the column labeled “Cost/Gal” is the rate charged divided by the number of gallons in the bin. For example, the rate for a 32-gallon bin was $34.86; the cost per gallon is calculated as $34.86 ÷ 32 = $1.09. For years 2023, 2024, and proposed 2025 I have added two additional columns, “Rate Increase” which is the total dollar amount of the increase—calculated by subtracting the “New Rate” of the previous year from the “New Rate” of the year of interest. The second added column, “% Increase”, shows the percent increase the rate from the previous year to the year of interest— calculated by dividing the “Rate Increase” of the year of interest by the “Rate” of the previous year. For 2023, for a 32-gallon bin we can see the “Rate Increase” is $38.86 - $34.86 = $4.00 and the “% Increase” is $4.00 ÷ $34.86 = 11.47%. The other columns were calculated as before. Some interesting points to make from the table: • In 2022 the cost per gallon between the lowest and highest cost was $0.15 with 20-gallon bins being the cheapest, $0.94 and 32-gallon being the most expensive $1.09. • In 2023 the increases were larger for smaller size bins than for larger bins. For 20-, 32-, 64- gallon bins the increases were $5.00, $4.00, $3.00, respectively; the 96-gallon bins saw no increase. • In 2023 there was still a discrepancy between the cost per gallon, but now the two smaller bins cost more per gallon than the two larger bins with a discrepancy of $0.22 per gallon ($1.21 - $0.99). • In 2024 the amount of the increase was the same for all bin sizes, $7.00. The proposed rate increases for 2025 at $8 for the 20-gallon bin and decreases by $1.00 for each increasing size reaching $5.00 for the 96-gallon bin. Again, the rate increases hits those discarding the least much more than those discarding more. For the last 3 years the 20-bins have increased by more than 25% each year, while the 96-gallon bins saw 0%, 7.34%, 4.89% over the same 3-year period. By the 2025 using the proposed rates cost residents using 20-gallon bins will pay $1.94 per gallon while those using 96-gallon bins are charged just $1.12 per gallon. These inequities are unfair, and often hit the low income and elderly on fixed incomes as well as those who carefully dispose of waste.