Just about everybody dumps their garbage on the Coastside for less than we do

Although Coastsiders live with the trucks, flying garbage on the highways, seagulls, and bacteria that come with having a landfill in our back yard, we pay a lot more for the privilege of dumping our garbage there, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

The South Bayside Waste Management Authority includes Belmont, Burlingame, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo, Hillsborough and the six South County cities in the West Bay Sanitary District. The rest of the cities pay the maximum rate, except South San Francisco, which has its own rate agreement.

In 2005, when South Bayside customers paid $31.07, the rest of the county was paying the maximum rate of $43.56 in tipping fees. This year, South Bayside will again receive a 29 percent discount, paying $32.09 per ton while the rest of the county pays $45.56, according to the group’s rate consultant.

Allied Waste, which operates the dump, says South Bayside negotiated at a more-favorable time and got a better deal. Since then, several other Bay Area dumps have closed and it’s not clear the county, which negotiated the Midcoast’s deal in 1999, could get the same deal. Half Moon Bay negotiates separately with Allied.