It鈥檚 been two months since the city adopted a dumpster ban in the Pike/Pine retail corridor of Capitol Hill. While Seattle Public Utilities reports the new garbage bag program has been running smoothly, not all businesses are happy about the increased cost.
SPU formed the Pike Pine Corridor Solid Waste Site Review Program based on recommendations from Mayor Ed Murray鈥檚 LGBTQ Task Force last summer; one was 聽to address dark alleys and other physical environments in Capitol Hill, which can be used as a hiding place for criminal behavior and drug consumption.
When the recommendations were released at the end of July 2015, there had been 41 anti-LGBTQ hate crimes or incidents reported to Seattle Police that year, up 46 percent from 2014.
The Pike Pine Corridor Solid Waste Site Review Program began assessing businesses in April, looking for a way to get rid of large dumpsters and carts.
Implemented in October, the program requires businesses that had dumpsters on sidewalks and the street to now buy bags for trash and recycling, which are to be collected three and two times a day, respectively, by city contractor CleanScapes. There are still tote carts for food waste and glass.
鈥淚 understand when they talked about it, it was supposed to be a 17 percent increase,鈥� said Jason Lajeunesse, managing partner at Neumos on East Pike, 鈥渂ut the business we do, it doesn鈥檛 work that way, because we use a lot of cans, a lot of canned products.鈥�
Lajeunnesse said Neumos has seen a more than 200 percent increase in solid waste disposal costs as a result of the new bag program. The business had been paying around $1,600 a month prior to the bag program. The last bill was more than $4,000. Lajeunesse estimates the bag program for Neumos amounts to an annual increase of $30,000.
鈥淯sing their bag program, for us, doesn鈥檛 work; it鈥檚 disastrous,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a full salary for someone.鈥�
SPU sells 33-gallon garbage bags in rolls of 25 for $160 and 33-gallon recycle bags in rolls of 25 for $108.75.
Neumos is consistently purchasing more recycling bags than garbage bags to handle the large amount of canned beverages it sells and then discards. Lajeunesse said Neumos is seeing the largest increase in costs, but Lost Lake and Mario鈥檚 is also experiencing a spike in its solid waste costs. Lajeunesse operates these other businesses through Guild Seattle, with cofounders Joey Burgess and David Meinert.
鈥淓veryone is experiencing a price increase, we鈥檙e not the only ones,鈥� Lajeunesse said. 鈥淥f course, ours is more extreme.鈥�
Chop Suey has also complained to SPU regarding an increase in its recycling costs.
鈥淲hat is costing these guys the money is they sell a lot of cans and they don鈥檛 crush them and they take up a lot of volume and they have to buy a lot of bags,鈥� said Andy Ryan with SPU.
There are manual and mechanical crushing machines available, the former being time-consuming and the latter possibly taking up too much space and cost-prohibitive, Ryan said.
Lajeunesse said crushing cans is impractical with the volume of cans being produced.
SPU has been working with Neumos and Chop Suey to address their increased costs.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have any doubt that people鈥檚 costs are going up as a result of this,鈥� Ryan said, 鈥渂ut it鈥檚 our impression that this is what the community wants.鈥�
The Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce鈥檚 Clean and Safe Committee and Capitol Hill Housing both identified dumpster management in their 2016 work plans.
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