The Environmental Services Department of the City of San Diego, CA, chose GBB to conduct an in-depth analysis and assessment of the City’s current collection system and provide recommendations to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. GBB will provide key strategic assistance to help the City continue to deliver service levels that citizens have come to expect and depend on, provide for the public health and the cleanliness of the City, and meet recycling and waste reduction goals while remaining sensitive to growing fiscal constraints.

GBB Project Team members – who have extensive experience in both the private and public sectors – have worked on several operational studies and will have the ability to easily identify opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiencies as well as share knowledge and lessons learned. Joining GBB for this assignment is California-based IntelliWaste, Inc., led by Archie Humphrey, who brings more than 30 years of experience in the private sector managing large projects including collection systems, recycling, processing and transfer and solid waste sanitary landfill operations across California.

The City of San Diego has been providing uninterrupted refuse collection services for residents since 1919. As the City has grown into the nation’s eighth largest, with a population of more than 1.3 million residents occupying a land area of 372 square miles, the collection system has grown in size and complexity. The City currently provides weekly refuse collection services to approximately 289,000 residential units and bi-weekly yard waste collection services to 190,000 residential units. Collection services for smaller City facilities are also provided, along with seven day a week collection of public litter containers in business districts throughout the City. In FY2010, approximately 420,000 tons of waste, recyclables and greenery from more than 25 million stops were collected.