The City of San Diego has historically not charged property owners for trash collection, which is currently changing with many receiving their first bills for trash, recycling, and organics / compost collection. You may notice this with the change in color of the collection bins, in addition to the new charges on bills for property owners.
The charge for many property owners is $523 per year, which is included as a line item on the annual property tax bill (image below of the line item and description). I was surprised that this bill was not billed directly through a trash collection provider, or the city as provider, but included on property taxes. I would guess this is to avoid scrutiny and awareness of the additional charge but happy to be corrected if there’s a specific reason it must be charged in this way. Please let me know if it’s required to be charged in this manner.
There have been quite a number of news articles on this new fee. I wanted to highlight a part of the trash charge I’ve not seen widely covered, which is an increase of more than 10% each year that is already planned through 2028. 
There is a proposal at the San Diego City Council to preclude adding these trash collection charges to tenants if not included in the original leases. I would guess the inclusion of non-existent fees in the past are likely not included in existing leases. This proposal was led by Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera who is also leading the effort to impose a $5,000 per bedroom per year tax on short-term rentals and second homes in San Diego.
Input or thoughts on the new trash collection charge or planned increases in this charge?
