Local garbage service rates are going up, after County Supervisors approved a rate adjustment for inflation.
The County Public Works Department brought the rate adjustment to Supervisors in December, at the behest of Mission Country Disposal, South County Sanitary Services and San Luis Garbage Co., under the umbrella of Waste Connections, which requested a 2.7% rate increase in accordance with the companies’ franchise contract.
Waste Connections is the corporate entity and the other three are “waste haulers” or divisions of the corporation.
The affected areas include urban and rural Los Osos, Cayucos, Cambria, San Simeon and the unincorporated areas in South County and rural San Luis Obispo.
The increases are not subject to Prop. 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act, according to the County.
“The requested rate increase,” reads the report from Public Works, “meets Proposition 218 requirements approved by your Board on June 17, 2025, for South County Sanitary Services and San Luis Garbage and on August 19, 2025, for Mission Country Disposal.”
As inflation adjustments, the increases are not considered new rates for the purposes of Prop. 218. Had they been made to base rates, then customers would have been given the chance to protest.
The increases amount to just a couple of dollars a month. In rural Los Osos, a 32-gallon service is going from $49.50 a month to $50.84 an increase of $1.34. A 96-gallon service is going from $75.37 to $77.40, up $2.03. (It should be noted these figures do not include franchise fees and taxes.)
In rural Morro Bay the rate is going from $27.31 to $28.05 up 74¢, and from $39.57 to $40.64, $1.07 for the 86-gallon service.
In rural Cayucos, the same 32-gallon service is going from $27.31 to $28.05, again up 74¢. In-town customers will see the same 2.7% rate hikes as well.
The new rates were slated to go into effect in January.
