Athens Services outlines costs and logistics for San Gabriel to meet SB 1383 with three-stream collection

John Harrington, senior vice president for government affairs at Athens Services, told the St. Gabriel City Council that California’s SB 1383 — the state’s organics-diversion law — effectively requires cities to move to a three-stream collection system if they cannot meet a 75% diversion target through mixed-waste processing. He said Athens’ plan would make San Gabriel “automatically compliant” with the state’s rules by separating trash, organics and recyclables at the source.

Harrington said one core challenge is funding: “this is unfunded,” he told the council, adding that Athens and cities must figure out how to pay for new trucks, barrels and route changes. He estimated the company will deploy about 6,000 residential barrels and serve roughly 900 commercial customers (the commercial total includes multifamily properties billed as single commercial accounts). Harrington said the program will likely require two additional collection trucks and that a fully outfitted route truck costs “well north of $500,000.”

Why it matters: the three-stream approach reduces contamination and removes organics before they reach landfills, lowering methane emissions and producing compost/soil products. But it also changes operational costs and service patterns for businesses and some multifamily properties, which can affect fees and collection frequency.

Harrington walked the council through Athens’ proposed “bundled” commercial rate that packages trash, organics and recycling into one service. Using a typical small commercial account as an example, he said an existing service costing about $438.80 would move to a bundled rate of about $481.22, a difference of roughly $42.42 to cover the added recycling barrel and servicing.

Council members pressed Athens on how multifamily buildings are classified. Harrington said the industry follows the HUD standard used by Athens: properties with five or more units are treated at the multifamily/commercial level for service and billing. He also described technical options where enclosures are tight — split lids, locked barrels, downsizing some trash capacity while adding recycling and organics — and said Athens conducts site assessments to right-size containers and schedules.

Harrington described the program’s non-collection elements: contamination auditing (sorting and reporting loads for state audits), robust multilingual outreach and education (hot-stamped instructions rather than stickers), business site visits, food-recovery partnerships through the regional COG, and targeted assistance to restaurants and high-recycling businesses. He said Athens will typically give two or three warnings for contamination before escalating enforcement approaches.

On costs and timing, Harrington said Athens absorbs a large portion of upfront capital and recovers investments over several years through rates: “we are putting a lot of money up front and it’s getting amortized over years,” he said. He said education will be ongoing, with a focused rollout period of about two months and commercial outreach beginning immediately.

What’s next: the presentation provided operational details the council and staff can use in budget and contract discussions. Staff and Athens noted they will continue site assessments for multifamily and mixed-use projects and ramp up multilingual outreach before barrels arrive.

The council did not take a separate vote on the presentation; it serves as background for future rate and implementation decisions.