New $44 per month trash fees coming to homeowners July 1

Last Updated on June 16, 2025

The City Council approved the fees, about $44 per month, for most homeowners, during a lengthy, contentious meeting ending in a split council member vote.

City of San Diego homeowners will now pay about $44 monthly for trash collection, after the San Diego City Council voted June 9 for the first-ever fee.

The fee will begin July 1 with the next fiscal year, will homeowners receiving mailed login information around mid-July, selecting desired containers (which could raise or lower the fee) and more.

Those who select smaller containers will still be charged the $44 but will receive a credit for the next fiscal year’s bill; those who select larger containers will have more added to next year’s bill.

The bill will go up over the next four years, to about $51 for standard monthly service in 2028.

The City Council approved the fees in a split vote after a lengthy, contentious meeting, the culmination of months of pushback from residents about the perceived injustices of the new fee.

The city has provided collection services – mostly paid for by the general fund – for single-family homeowners and residential complexes up to four units, since 1919 and the implementation of the People’s Ordinance.

Residences on private streets and in gated communities, mixed-use properties and non-residential properties have always been charged for collection services.

In 2022, San Diego voters passed Measure B, which amended the People’s Ordinance to allow the city to begin charging for waste collection; at the time, the city estimated homeowners would be charged $23 to $29, pending a full fiscal analysis.

But in February, city representatives said the original estimates were based on erroneous numbers, and proposed a fee of about $53 per month for collection services.

That number – much higher than the original $29 estimate – sparked criticism and backlash from residents citywide.

The number has been reduced to about $44 since an April presentation to City Council, but for many, it wasn’t enough: Hundreds of residents made public comments in opposition at the June 9 meeting and City Clerk Diana Fuentes said the city collected 46,456 protest cards against the solid waste management fee.

The protest cards, however, weren’t enough to quash the vote: 113,249 were needed to legally end the matter per state law.

Among the vociferous complaints heard were the new fees would be a hardship and unfair for those on a fixed income or those who produce very little trash; the city performed poorly in allowing the rates to rise significantly after the Measure B passage; the fees are abusive and exorbitant and the city has mismanaged funds and misled the public.

“Rework the inequities here,” La Jolla resident Janie Emerson implored.

A handful of comments supported the proposed fees, noting the city is confronting a ballooning $258 million deficit.

Most City Council members agreed.

“We brought measure B forward for three reasons,” Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said: “Fiscal responsibility, environmental sustainability and fairness.”

Imposing the proposed fees is “much bigger than waste management services,” he said. “It’s about the kind of city that we want to be.”

“We’re going to be looking at a draft budget that reveals $110 million in cuts,” said City Council President Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla. “If we do not pass a trash fee, … we will blow at least an $80 million hole in that budget.”

“The final product is not what the majority of our city voted for with measure B,” said Councilmember Raul Campillo, who joined council members Henry Foster and Marni von Wilpert in voting no on the fees.

“Supporting this action will lead the public to not trust this council,” Campillo said.

Council President Pro Tem Kent Lee and council members Jennifer Campbell, Stephen Whitburn and Vivian Moreno supported the fees, bringing the vote to 6-3.