Dear Editor,

This letter is intended to provide clarification in response to certain comments about the change to a 3-cart trash/recycling/yard waste collection system coming in summer 2024 in South Lake Tahoe. We realize that these are big changes for our community, and South Tahoe Refuse remains committed to providing excellent customer service while also being compliant with the new California state regulations.

Regarding yard waste, the new program will provide plenty of options for customers to dispose of material that is part of fire prevention or defensible space efforts. You will be able to select up to two 95-gallon yard waste carts which will be collected every other week. In addition, customers can always place yard waste that does not fit inside their carts in compostable paper bags or in 32-gallon Rubbermaid cans for curbside collection. There will also continue to be the option for residential customers to bring unlimited amounts of yard waste into our facility at no cost. Also, recognizing there are certain times of the year when most customers do a big yard cleanup, we will be organizing spring and fall yard waste cleanup weeks. During those events, customers will be able to place unlimited amounts of pine needles/yard waste out for collection in bags or cans during that given week. Lastly, we will continue to partner with FireWise cleanup coordinators as we have done in the past to provide containers or other support for those events upon request.

As STR and the City strive towards being more sustainable, it was agreed that we wanted to eliminate plastic bags as much as possible. There is an extremely limited market for recycling plastic bags, and the material often ends up polluting our environment and waterways. All of the material we collect through the new program will be sent for composting, and eliminating plastic bag pollution is critical to the success of the compost system.

Regarding bear boxes, we will continue to service trash from bear boxes. We realize bear boxes are an important tool in handling the bear situation in our area and there is no intention to eliminate that service. Customers that have bear boxes would only receive the recycling and yard waste carts (unless they inform STR that they want to switch to an animal-resistant cart for trash).

While the new requirements from the state may seem daunting, there are other communities that face similar challenges of heavy winters, bears, wildfire risk, and tourists. We consulted with representatives from many such communities and discussed our unique situation with CalRecycle. We assure you that we have done extensive research on the selection of animalresistant carts and have consulted with other highelevation communities that are utilizing them. It is in the best interest of our company and our ratepayers to provide the tools to help minimize animal-trash encounters and we did not make the decision lightly in selecting the trash carts.

We have also met with City and County representatives and with their input and guidance have developed what we believe is the best possible way to come into compliance with the state requirements while continuing to support wildfire prevention and defensible space efforts and keep rates as reasonable as possible.

In addition, making the switch to a semi-automated cart collection system will result in a safer working environment for South Tahoe Refuse employees and will result in ratepayer savings due to fewer employee injuries. There will be reduced exposure to injury from lifting, as well as reduced exposure to sharp, harmful, and even hazardous material.

Our webpage dedicated to the 3-cart program has an FAQs section with additional information. We also plan to conduct extensive outreach in the community to make sure that people have an understanding of the new changes before the program is implemented in summer 2024. You can always contact our office at 530-541-5105 for more information.

Respectfully,

Jeff Tillman President, South Tahoe Refuse