Waste Resource Technologies v. DEPT. OF PUB. HLT. OF CITY AND CTY. OF SAN FRANCISCO

The City and County of San Francisco (City) has a longstanding practice of granting to private entities what amounts to an exclusive franchise to collect refuse. The issue presented is whether the City’s authority to enter into this type of arrangement survived passage of the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989. We conclude that the City still has the power to grant an exclusive refuse collection permit.

Background

In November of 1932 the voters of San Francisco adopted an initiative measure entitled the Refuse Collection and Disposal Ordinance (Ordinance). It divides the City into 97 “routes for the collection of refuse.” Permits to collect or dispose of refuse from each of these routes are issued by the City’s director of public health. Since the 1930’s the only permit recipients have been Golden Gate Disposal Company and Sunset Scavenger Company (or their predecessors in interest), which are subsidiaries of Norcal Solid Waste Systems, Inc. As a general proposition, they alone are authorized to collect, transport, or dispose of “refuse,” which the Ordinance comprehensively defines as “all waste and discarded materials from dwelling places, households,…