Tax increase, new food/yard waste fee, cause jump in Bellingham monthly trash bill
Some Bellingham residents were surprised in February to see a sharp jump in their trash collection invoice. A citywide solid waste tax increase went into effect last month, coming at the same time for many customers as a new fee for every-other-week food and yard waste collection.
Notices on Sanitary Service Company invoices sent out in January read: “Effective 2/1/2025, the City of Bellingham is increasing the Utility Tax from an effective tax rate of 12.99% to an effective tax rate of 20.85%.”
In November 2024 the city council approved the 2025 budget, which included an increase in the solid waste utility tax from 11.5% to 17.25%. But, according to the city’s solid waste FAQs page, “the rate on bills appears higher than this because the tax applies to total revenue, including the tax itself.”
SSC General Manager Ted Carlson elaborated on the discrepancy between the approved tax rate and the actual tax rate in an email to Cascadia Daily News.
Because the utility tax is a “gross receipts” tax, meaning it is a percentage of total revenue including the tax collected, if SSC collected only 17.25% the company would not cover all of its own costs after paying the city. The tax total in a customer’s bill includes an equivalent markup percentage so that the hauling company collects enough revenue to cover its costs.
The utility tax only applies to garbage collection and disposal, not recycling or organics collection. The revenue from the utility tax goes into the city’s Environmental Remediation Fund, much of which is dedicated to cleaning up 12 contaminated sites on the Bellingham waterfront.
The Port of Bellingham and the City of Bellingham are the main entities responsible for addressing the legacy of decades of industrial and municipal pollution on the bay. Each project costs many millions of dollars, and the state will reimburse up to half the costs of cleanup work.
Additional expense for mandatory food waste collection
Adding another expense to many bills is the city’s new mandatory food and yard waste collection service. SSC is in the process of rolling out FoodPlus, which costs $13.69 per month, to all Bellingham single-family households and multiplexes up to four units. Organics collection will eventually be mandatory in all larger Washington cities due to recent state legislation. Bellingham passed its resolution requiring organics collection in February 2023.
The city does not currently offer exemptions for residents who have at-home compost systems. The state Department of Ecology will release guidance to local governments on how to offer exemptions by the end of 2026, and those exemptions are expected to come with intensive verification of adequate home composting, according to city public works staff.
The city has advised residents that reducing garbage collection frequency can help offset the cost of the FoodPlus service and decrease the total taxes paid.
SSC offers a discounted trash collection rate for residential customers in Bellingham who are 62 years of age or older and meet low-income requirements; or are 18 years of age or older, meet low-income requirements, and receive permanent Social Security Disability payments.
Customers can find out whether they qualify for a discounted rate by calling the City of Bellingham Finance Department at (360) 778-8010.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.