There’s only one word for this action by Orange County: ridiculous. From the News of Orange County comes this piece by the county’s solid waste planner, who describes why recycling fees have gone up. (emphasis is mine)
The basic fee of $37 per month charged to each improved property remains the same for this year as does the M or multifamily fee for apartment recycling, which stays at $19 per unit per year. The urban curbside, or U, fee increased to $52 from $44 per household to cover costs of weekly curbside recycling in blue bins. The rural curbside, or R, fee increased from $26 per household to $38 for those who have orange bins and get recycling every other week.
The primary reason for the fee increase is to pay for the program enhancement made last fall when the urban and rural curbside programs began collecting corrugated cardboard. Addition of corrugated cardboard to the curbside programs was a much desired service, but this has both increased collection cost and decreased the value of the paper we collect as it now requires more back-end sorting at processing plants. Please recycle your corrugated cardboard at the curb, but remember that boxes must be flattened, that collection is limited to 10 boxes at one time, and there is a restriction on the maximum size of the boxes (36 inches by 36 inches). Take larger loads to drop-off sites.
I have a suggestion: eliminate the fee hike and we can all dispose of cardboard ourselves.
