RethinkWaste Board Adopts 2011-12 Fiscal Year Budget

RethinkWaste, the agency that provides garbage and recycling services for cities in San Mateo County including Menlo Park, on Monday announced the adoption of its 2011-2012 fiscal year budget.

The budget, which shows lower operating costs and higher commodity revenues, are reportedly a "significant improvement" over the projected results of the 2010-2011 fiscal year's budget net income.

In 2010-2011, the agency made $270,000, but this year annual revenues total $40,132,600 and expenditures are $36,490,650, producing a net income of $3,641,950, according to the agency.

The agency credits its financial improvement with the following:

• 10.6 percent reduction in operating costs for the Shoreway Environmental Center with the new facility operator South Bay Recycling taking over on Jan. 1 from Allied Waste of San Mateo County.
• Completion of Shoreway master plan construction activities resulting in cessation of interim operations, notably the cost of paying a third-party recyclables processor for offsite shipment ended in April.
• 13.3 percent reduction in costs for agency staff and programs due to the elimination of one-time expenses related to the startup of new services in the 12 agency RethinkWaste service area (e.g., the public education outreach campaign for the rollout of the new collection services) and a slight reduction in the RethinkWaste staff

The Board of Directors also recently voted to reduce tipping fees at the Shoreway facility for public customers bringing in trash and green waste.