Adding curbside recycling for Baker Sanitary Service customers in Baker City, which probably will start in 2026, will boost residential customers’ bills by about 31%.

Baker Sanitary Service president Stephen Henry gave city councilors an update during their meeting Tuesday evening, March 11.

He estimated the company, to cover the costs of curbside recycling including a truck, containers, and ongoing expenses for fuel and salaries, will boost the monthly bill for residential customers to about $28. That’s a 31% increase from the $21.32 monthly rate that takes effect May 1.

Henry told councilors that the monthly rate in La Grande, which also has curbside recycling with bi-weekly collection, is $32.35.

Henry told councilors that DEQ officials have told him that Baker Sanitary is likely to receive about $1.4 million from the state for startup costs, such as buying a truck and the containers where customers will put recyclables.

The agency will also pay the company’s full cost to haul recyclable materials to processing centers, Henry said.

In response to a question from Mayor Randy Daugherty, Henry said residential customers who have garbage collection will be required to also have a separate container for recyclables, which would be picked up every other week rather than weekly as is the case for most residential customers.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality mandates that garbage customers also receive a recyclables cart, Henry said.

Baker City, unlike some cities, does not require residents to have garbage collection, Henry said. He didn’t have an estimate for the number of households in the city that don’t have garbage collection. Baker Sanitary has about 3,500 residential customers within the city limits, he said.

People who don’t have garbage service would not be required to sign up when curbside recycling starts, Henry said.

Daugherty said he expects that some residents won’t actually put recyclables in their container.

Now, city residents who want to recycle items such as plastic milk jugs, cardboard and paper have to bring them to Baker Sanitary’s self-serve recycling center at 12th and Campbell streets.

When curbside recycling starts, customers will place those items in a rollcart. These will be “co-mingled” containers, Henry said, meaning customers won’t need to sort the items but can place all of them in the same container.

Some items won’t be eligible for curbside collection, including glass jars, motor oil, spray cans and large metal pieces, Henry said.

Residents will still be able to recycle those items at the recycling center, which will stay open after curbside pickup starts.

The recycling rollcarts will have a capacity of 95 gallons, compared with 65 gallons for garbage rollcarts.

Henry said Baker Sanitary doesn’t plan to offer curbside recycling outside the Baker City limits.

Franchise fee
In addition to giving councilors an update on curbside recycling, Henry talked about the 2% fee the company is adding to residential and commercial bills on May 1 to reflect the city council’s decision late in 2024 to increase Baker Sanitary’s franchise fee from 5% of its gross revenues collected within the city to 7%.

The increase boosts the company’s franchise fee payment to the city from about $70,000 per year to about $98,000. The money goes to the general fund.

Currently, Baker Sanitary bills don’t show the franchise fee as a separate line. That will change on May 1, Henry said.

The franchise fee line will be $1.39 per month for residential customers, and $1.74 for commercial customers.

However, Baker Sanitary is also reducing the base rate for both customer classes by about $1.

Overall, the monthly rate for residential customers who have garbage collected weekly will increase from $20.90 to $21.32, an increase of 42 cents.

The commercial rate will also go up by 42 cents, from $26.12 to $26.64.

Baker Sanitary is not increasing landfill rates.

Baker City, unlike some cities, does not require residents to have garbage collection, Henry said. He didn’t have an estimate for the number of households in the city that don’t have garbage collection.

Those people would not be required to sign up for garbage and recycling service, Henry said.