It’s been just over a year since more than 20,000 properties lost city trash pickups in San Diego.
For condo associations, small apartment buildings, townhomes, HOAs, gated neighborhoods, and mixed-use buildings, the timing of this created a recipe for disaster.
You had a tight deadline to find a hauler willing to service your property, and the hauler knew that you were under duress. And now that you’ve had a full year of invoices, you’re probably shocked at how much this change has actually cost you.
This is a great time to find out whether you’re overpaying and how you can save money.
Why Your First Contract With a Private Hauler is Probably Too Expensive
Back when the city handled your trash, nobody had to think about volume. People simply rolled their carts to the curb and the city emptied them. There was no bill to review, and nobody knew or cared how much waste was being produced at the property.
Then everyone had to buy commercial waste at the same time, when the city began mailing notices with deadlines to sign up with a private franchise hauler between July and October 2025.
Thousands of properties were shopping for services from the same five approved haulers:
- EDCO
- Republic Services
- UWS
- Ware
- WM (Waste Management)
In that environment, nobody was negotiating. Property managers and HOA boards were just trying to find that first workable quote and accepted whatever container size and pickup schedule the hauler recommended.
Some smaller properties were only offered dumpster service if anything at all, even if carts would have been sufficient.
None of this was necessarily a bad decision at the time, as avoiding city-imposed fines and getting trash off the property was the top priority. But it means your current service was set up based on estimates in a seller’s market, and was never compared to anything.
Your Trash Hauling Rates in San Diego Are Still Negotiable
San Diego uses a non-exclusive franchise system for waste hauling. This means:
- The city decides which haulers are allowed to operate in the area
- But they don’t assign you a hauler
- And they don’t set the rates for privately serviced properties
This is very different from an exclusive franchise model, in which the city picks the hauler and pre-negotiates the rates.
Whatever price you’re paying right now isn’t tied to a government rate.
The five haulers currently servicing San Diego are allowed to compete for your business, and their fees are 100% negotiable.
That means you’re free to re-negotiate with your current hauler at any time or even compare pricing against the other approved haulers.
You’re in a much stronger position right now than you were a year ago because you’re no longer guessing about your property’s needs and you’re not under the pressure of a tight deadline.
What a Year of Private Waste Hauling Invoices Can Tell You
Regardless of who’s hauling your trash right now, there’s a good chance your service level doesn’t match your actual needs if you were forced to move away from the city’s hauling as a result of Measure B.
The easiest way to start is by pulling out your last 12 months of invoices. You’ll be looking for a few things here:
- Look for what you paid vs. what you were quoted
- Figure out where the difference is coming from (extra pickups, overages, contamination fees, etc.)
- Identify any charges that show up repeatedly
A one-time extra pickup isn’t a big deal. But if you’re being hit with overages every single week, it’s a problem that needs addressed ASAP. It’s a clear sign that your service doesn’t match the property and your hauler has no incentive to tell you this because it’s more profitable for them to hit you with excess fees instead of adjusting your service level.
Is Your Container Size and Pickup Schedule Right?
Once you’re done with the invoices, go out and look at your containers. Check them right before pickup a few times over the next month and take pictures.
Because the bill only tells you what you’re paying. The dumpster will tell you the rest of the story.
If your dumpster is consistently half full on pickup day, you’re paying to haul air. You can easily lower your cost by getting a smaller container or switching to one fewer pickup per week.
The opposite costs you money, too. Overflowing containers will be hit with overage or extra-pickup charges. And it’s usually cheaper to size up rather than pay penalties.
Pictures can also help if your hauler is unfairly charging you more than you should be paying. For example, we’ve seen haulers charge overage fees on dumpsters that weren’t actually overflowing. It happens more than you realize, and something you should be aware of.
You should also keep in mind that the city requires properties on a private hauling service to have trash, recycling, and organic waste all from one hauler. So you can’t drop one service to save money.
However, you can make sure each one is sized for what your property really produces.
So many properties were forced to guess how their waste would split between trash and recycling because they were on a deadline. But a year of actual use will typically show a very different picture.
Look Past the Base Rate
Your monthly service charge is only a part of your total bill, and it’s usually a lot less than what people expect it to be.
There’s a good chance your waste invoices can include other fees that exceed your base rate, including:
- Surcharges
- Contaminated recycling
- Contaminated organics
- Blocked containers
- Extra pickups
- Overage fees
- Bulky items disposals
- Dry run fees
If you’re not sure what every line on your bill means, it’s worth asking your hauler or getting a second look to see if it’s legitimate. And whether it’s showing up more often than it should be.
Your Contract Anniversary Matters
If your property signed up in the summer or fall of 2025, your one-year mark is right around now.
That date matters more than most people realize because the vast majority of waste hauling agreements include annual rate increases, auto renewal terms, and notice periods or cancellation penalties that are easy to miss.
Look at the contract before you contact your hauler to negotiate.
It may contain information on liquidated damages or right of first refusal clauses that are crucial to understand, as they can have serious cost implications if not treated properly.
This timing also lines up with budget season for a lot of HOAs and property owners. Since 2027 will be the first year you can budget for waste services using real numbers instead of an estimate or quote.
If You’re Just Getting the City’s Letter Now
Most properties have already been notified if they needed a private hauler. But the city is still identifying properties that don’t qualify for city collection and sending notices with 60 days to sign up with a private franchise hauler.
If that’s you, you have an advantage that didn’t exist last year: haulers are no longer overwhelmed and you know which mistakes to avoid.
So get more than one quote and ask how the recommended container size and pickup schedules were chosen. Read the rate increase and renewal terms before you sign anything.
Get a Second Look at Your Waste Costs
Losing access to city trash pickups turned thousands of San Diego property owners, landlords, and HOA boards into commercial waste customers almost overnight.
More than a year later, plenty are still paying too much for a service that was chosen under duress.
Here at the Cost Guards, we can review your invoices, contracts, and service levels to identify where you’re overpaying. Then we work to bring your costs down by negotiating directly with your current hauler.
If your property has been on private trash hauling service for the past year and you never had anyone look closely at the bill, contact us for a free review.