South Gate : Commercial Trash Haulers Get Year to Stop Operations

The city has given 12 commercial trash haulers until the end of July, 1993, to phase out their South Gate operations.

Notices went out to the haulers after the city and Western Waste Industries failed to reach a compromise that would have permitted some of the present haulers to stay in business. Western Waste will become the city’s exclusive commercial trash hauler in one year.

City Manager Todd Argow said Western Waste was not willing to change its exclusive trash collection franchise because the agreement holds the company responsible for state-mandated reductions of the amount of South Gate trash hauled to landfills. Western Waste also must pay any fines levied for noncompliance.

Although the City Council approved the agreement with Western Waste last December, negotiations were reopened in May after a public outcry over a 34% increase in residential collection rates. Prices went up after the company, which has long been South Gate’s exclusive residential trash hauler, started an automated collection system that included recycling.

Commercial haulers also attacked the franchise, which gave Western the exclusive right to collect commercial trash in the city for the first time. They said it stifled competition and argued that a single hauler is not required to meet state demands for trash reduction.