Count me as one of the group that wants composting options with *weekly* trash pick-up.

We already have the larger trash bin and it gets very full each week. Reducing trash pick up and collecting food scraps every two weeks is going to lead to more insects and rodents in residents' garages, and, as noted in the article, "getting half the service for the same price."

Oh <****>!!! Do you know how much trash is going to be dumped around town if they only pick it up every other week?
It really only takes one or two bags to impact a huge area, and you KNOW we'll see more than that.

The composting is a great idea. So is weekly trash pickup. Trash pickup every other week is a hugely stupid idea that will negatively impact us all.
OK, just wanted to make sure we all understood.

Los Altos used to have a similar garbage / recycling program as Mountain View does now with weekly garbage pickup and biweekly pickup for recycling and yard waste. About five years ago it changed to weekly pickup of everything, allowed mixed recycling, and encouraged that all organic waste be included with yard waste. It was a great change that reduced garbage (at least mine). I have wished since moving back to Mountain View that our City would follow a similar program.

The point of this program is to divert as much organic material as possible from landfill. With that at top of mind, this is a no-brainer. As residents, we're not asked to do all that much overall. This is a worthy sacrifice of some convenience, for some, for the common good.

Agree with the comments above. Rats and possums are already a problem, and we don't need to encourage it.

I love the composting idea, though.

I've been waiting for food composting for years. Can't believe it's taking Mountain View this long! Please make a decision soon.

Between recycling and our own personal composting, the small garbage can we have is rarely more than half full. If pizza boxes, pet waste, paper towels, etc, can go in city composting, then we'd never have a problem with two week pickup.

I don't want to subsidize lazy neighbors who can't be bothered to sort out their paper, containers and food scraps. They can pay for a bigger can or more frequent pickup.

Families with diapers can get compostable ones, or more frequent pick up too.

We've already only been putting out the trash every other week. We compost our non-meat / cheese food scraps, and put those other scraps into a special compostable bag and send to the the restaurant composting program (hassle please get the pickup for us going!).

It's easy if you want to do it.

And for the diaper-people, how about www.earth-baby.com/ . They pickup and compost your waste. The plastic diapers are basically externalizing the cost to the environment, which means all of us subsidize the convenience of plastic.

We are a few short years from the point of no return with climate change. We've been lazy too long and it's time to get more sustainable. Or we die.

We rarely have more than a few verrrry small bags in our garbage now because we are very careful about recycling and bi-weekly trash would be fine with us.
We already compost our non-meat / cheese food scraps, so this is a win-win as far as we are concerned.
We see trash cans in our neighborhood with overflowing trash on a weekly basis. What are they putting in there?

Um.....trash maybe? Not everyone is the same and to imply that someone is bad because they have more trash is pretty damn judgemental don't ya think?

We entertain. A lot. And therefore have a lot of both trash and recycling. One could argue that what is going out in our trash is NOT going out in our friends since they're "using" the food/drinks etc at our home rather than theirs.

I am so tired of people telling others how to live their lives and making judgements without knowing particular circumstances.

I was quoted in the article as supporting a scraps program while maintaining weekly pickup. There were a few data points in the extensive results (Web Link that lead me there:

* 5.2 pounds of waste were diverted in the weekly pickup zone, vs 8.6 pounds in biweekly
5.2 pounds is already quite significant vs 0 pounds without scraps.

* 14 people from the biweekly pickup group were already composting, vs 1-2 in the weekly group
This hints that there may be an underlying difference in the demographisc that could account for the difference in diversion. I would suggest swapping the zoning schedule to see the effect (not a perfect study, but the results would be meaningful)

* In the biweekly group, 28% were at least "somewhat dissatisfied" with garbage service, vs 6% in the weekly group.
Trash is one of a few core municipal services provided from the City to residents on a regular basis. 72% approval vs 94% approval does not seem like a good figure, particularly when we already can't flush our toilets because of the drought.

* 33% of garbage cans were MORE than 100% full when collected.
I personally don't think this is a good thing-- in fact, last week, our 93 year old neighbor's garbage was over capacity. It was a windy day, and loose trash was spewed across her yard because of it, so I spent some time cleaning up her trash.

I also found some of the Council comments to be a bit troublesome. Several of the council members used their own singular experience as evidence for why biweekly pickup was OK for the rest of City. Some are renters who would be unaffected. I was happy to see Mr. Rosenberg suggest that Councilmembers not assume everyone has the same collection practices, but then strangely went on to support a bi-weekly collection. To his credit, Lenny Siegel (a pilot participant) spent a lot of time talking to other participants of the program and brought a lot of insight to the conversation.


For reference, we are zone 2 (biweekly) participants. I live with my wife, our 15 month old, and our cat. We never had to use an extra bag sticker, but often were at over 100% capacity. Beyond the figures, we found it a bit stressful to spend extra effort timing what can get thrown out when. Missing a pickup is absolutely not a possibility. If you work late on your pickup night, or are out celebrating or whatnot, you'd better remember to put out your trash or you are in for 4 weeks without garbage collection.

We are really happy to support composting, but the biweekly collection feels unnecessary and tedious. We would much rather pay the standard Peninsula rate for garbage service and have weekly pickup with scraps. (Mountain View has one of the cheapest collections on the Peninsula, which doesn't really stand out as a city perk in my opinion)

"Council backs dropping garbage pick-up to once every two weeks" ?? I would like to know who voted for this plan and if those council members went out and talked to their constituents. My family has a small can and that almost always fills up every week. I would be extremely angry if my garbage was picked up only once every 2 weeks.

Composting, yeah give it a go. Weekly trash pickup is a must regardless. Kill the weekly trash pickup and the negative impact will rapidly be seen and smelled throughout the city.

I suppose if the city goes to bi-weekly trash pickup then we will also be seeing an correlating reduction in our bill? There should be no reduction in service without a correlating reduction in price.

If this plan (bi-weekly pickup) is foisted upon the residents against their wishes, I imagine the dumpsters near city hall and other places downtown might get pretty full with all 2nd week of trash that people will inevitably be dumping all over town.

Wait, how does this work for all the high density developments going up all over town...will they still get weekly trash pickup? If so, why would they be exempt? If not, then there's another place to dump the 2nd week of trash.

I used to compost when I lived in the mountains and could keep it far away from the house. But our yard is small here, and I can't see how this could work. I already freeze potentially odorous garbage until our pick up, as our garbage cans live opposite our neighbor's window on the other side of the fence, and I don't want to offend their sensibilities! I am okay with possibly tossing vegetable matter in the cuttings bin, but that is not much material overall. What a gross idea.

I backyard compost and because of that, we don't even fill the trash every other week. We don't even compost pizza boxes. That still goes in the trash. Diapers do fill up trash cans, but I've heard that people with more than one baby need to get bigger cans and therefore pay more anyhow. As for me, I plan to do the cloth diaper service again. Tiny Tots in Campbell has great service for our area.
I hate to force my values on others, but less landfill feels good!

I'll happily keep organics in my backyard!
I'd love the bi-weekly pickup, but would expect that I pay less in my garbage bill. Financial incentives are a good way to go.

@Maya, all of the proposed pickups (including keeping service as-is) will include a price hike.

I think this is an excellent opportunity for the Council to do some serious research on an issue impacting the City. I have a proposal:

- Few if any members of the Council have young kids at home

- In order to simulate the effect on trash production of a large young family, volunteers will deliver the equivalent extra trash to the homes of council members. Some weeks will include diapers, other weeks will be more suited to other age groups.

- Since it is difficult to simulate the extra time spent by families with young kids, especially around meal clean up and prep, council members will have to sort the extra garbage 4 times. Blindfolded

- Since many council members live in larger homes than the average MV resident, they will be required to store their required compost bin smack in the middle of their kitchen.

-Since many council members have higher income than many MV residents, garbage tags for extra trash will cost $50.

-I anticipate a lot of MV residents will REALLY want to drop bags of trash in their council members driveways. So, volunteer slots will be auctioned off, and the proceeds will go to a compost education program.

If the council still likes the bi-weekly pickup after getting a little reality check, swell. I don't think they will

I live in the neighborhood where we've been doing the compost pickup and weekly garbage pickup and it works great! I put everything that I can into compost and garbage volume has gone down noticeably. However, bi-weekly garbage pickup would be a terrible idea, at least for people with young kids like me. The garbage already reeks profoundly after one week of sitting around due to diapers, I can only imagine what it would be like after two.

When I saw the pilot program flier, where the city explained that they're considering whether to do weekly or bi-weekly pickup, I was sure it would go down to bi-weekly, because that's how they sell decisions that they've already made. They make it seem like they've done some due diligence, but the decision has been made ahead of time, the rest is social engineering to get people to accept it. We'll get less frequent garbage pickup for a higher price - sounds about right.

I don't want to minimize the impact of a price increase, but...

We're not talking about going from $1,000 to $2,000. This is probably more like $165 to $175+. I understand the $10 adds up over time. But Geez...I just want my garbage picked up weekly...I'll pay what it takes.

Council, stop creating a problem where none existed. Garbage...pick it up weekly...Thank you.

My household was part of the weekly compost pilot program. Our trash was reduced by half. I was happy to participate, as I have envied neighboring communities who offer a compost service. I think that if the city adopts a biweekly trash pick up service, it will work for my family. Composting was easy.

Some of you other residents have some good ideas ...... composing is good for the environment; but there are many seniors or others so situated persons, for which this is extremely difficult. Apartments will stink, rats will love it, and economically, all of us will be paying double ( 200%) for the same service we received before. If the service collection is to be cut, city council members morally will have to reduce the cost to us all by 50% if they want to reduce service by 50% ( pick up every other week). Don't hold our collective breaths !!!

I am an unfortunate zone 2 participant, if the City decided not to give me a bigger garbage can but go ahead with the biweekly collection I expect a 50% reduction of garbage fee in my bill.

I grow some veggies in my yard and support the idea of composting-- but what happens to the compost that's generated by food scraps? Is it shared with participants who want it for their gardens?

Now let's see if I have this right: I am to pay the current amount I pay for weekly garbage pickup for bi-weekly garbage pickup. When in fact I should be getting a 50% reduction in costs due to a 50% reduction in services. AND I am supposed to live with wet garbage for that extra week. My yard is not big enough for a composting pile. The smell would be too close to my hoome. And I live in a mobile home park where I am expected to keep my yard clear of garbage.
So tell me again, how this plan is benefiting me or my environment?
This is nonsense and no amount of CITY COUNCIL SPIN will ever be able to make it be anything else but nonsense.

I say no to this plan. It's penny-wise and dollar foolish.

I could support the plan for the 2-way garbage bins with bi-weekly pickup and no additional charge... one section for dry garbage and the other for wet garbage. I routinely separate those but put both in the single section cart we currently use.

The City Council should not dictate this, but should look for incentives to encourage it. If the City Council imposes this on the Mountain View residents, they should be voted out.

This idea is nuts, we don't really have much in the way of food waste but we have other waste that does not fit into the current recycle program and must go into the trash can, not picking up trash every week will cause us a serious problem.
PLEASE TRASH CAN THIS IDEA