Petaluma garbage rates may increase

It’s a horrible time to be in the recycling business. A perfect storm of conditions, including dropping prices for raw materials and a port shutdown have conspired against the company that handles most of the garbage collection for Sonoma County and Petaluma.

The decline in recycling revenue could force a temporary increase in garbage rates for residents countywide.

In fliers featuring colorful cartoons, the Ratto Group, which in Petaluma does business as Petaluma Refuse and Recycling, has been warning residents about an impending $1 per month rate increase to offset the lost revenue due to the downturn in the recycling industry.

The company augments the revenue it collects from garbage rates by selling the recyclable material it salvages from residents’ blue curbside cans. Revenue from recycling allows the company to keep garbage rates relatively low, said Steve McCaffrey, government affairs director for the Ratto Group.

But the price of mixed paper, which a year ago was $100 per ton, is only $5 today, he said. Cardboard is down from $200 per ton to $43 per ton. Plastic material that recyclers were selling for $210 per ton last year now only garners $10 per ton. Most of the recycled materials are sold in Asia, where an economic downturn has caused prices to plummet, McCaffrey said.

Even if the price was high, companies like the Ratto Group would still have a hard time getting recyclables to market due to a labor dispute and work slowdown at west coast ports. Most of Petaluma’s recycled materials are sitting in North Bay warehouses.

“This is the toughest I’ve seen it for recyclers,” McCaffrey said. “We’re producing more material than we’re able to ship.”

To make matters worse, people are downsizing their garbage cans and then dumping garbage into the recycling can, which can spoil good salvageable material, rendering it worthless, he said.

The company is asking elected officials in the jurisdictions it serves for a temporary rate increase that would likely last through this year, McCaffrey said. In Petaluma, that would amount to a little more than $1 per month, he said.

“We’re partners with the community,” he said. “We need the whole community to come together.”

Mayor David Glass said that the rate increase seems reasonable.

“It’s all tied up in global events that are beyond the control of the service provider,” he said. “I get it. It’s the cost of doing business. You need them to be solvent.”

Petaluma residents don’t like rate increases, but they seem to understand the need for the increase in garbage rates. Liz Borg, a retiree, said that $1 per month is not very noticeable.

“For a dollar, to me that doesn’t seem like much,” she said. “If they raised it by $5, I’d say forget it.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @MattBrownAC.)