By Mary O’KEEFE

Richard Niño, municipal program director for Burretec Waste Industries, Inc., spoke to residents on Saturday about their new services in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, La Crescenta.

The company replaced Allied Waste after a bidding process. Niño introduced Burrtec as a family owned and operated business since 1955 and currently responsible for service areas including east Pasadena, Santa Clarita Valley, South Whittier and now La Crescenta.

“Our motto is, ‘We’ll take care of it,’” he said.

He explained the motto means they go above and beyond at times when customers need help. Staff has searched and found things that were accidentally thrown away from jewelry to false teeth. Although they do not always find the lost property, he said, they do make an effort to find it.

Burrtec was awarded the La Crescenta area through a competitive bid. This process has resulted with savings for local residents, on average about 33%. The charge for monthly service has dropped from $31.59 to $20.92 for the basic rate. This will be billed per quarter at a rate of $62.75. There is a 25% discount for seniors, further reducing their cost to $15.69 per month, a $47.07 quarterly cost. There is also a 5% military discount rate of $19.87 per month, $53.61 per quarter. This discount is for active military families.

To qualify for the senior discount, the head of the household must be 62 years of age or older and can either qualify for Lifeline, a government benefit program, or as a low generator of trash by ordering a smaller garbage bin.

The bins are similar to what residents have been using. The larger bins are 95-gallons; three new garbage bins will be delivered between March 25 and March 31. There is a black bin for regular household trash including palm fronds, pet waste, cactus, bird of paradise plants and food waste. A blue will be delivered for recyclables and a green for garden and yard waste. There is no hazardous or electronic waste collected in any of the bins; for those items it is advised to contact www.cleanla.com or call (888) 253-2652.

The company will host some community events including an annual curbside clean-event, and events for clothing and e-waste collection. They also will host a shredding event when residents can shred sensitive paperwork and will have a mulch and compost give-away.

Burrtec’s services include a twice-yearly program for on-call collection of curbside bulky items and e-waste in unlimited quantities. Customers are allowed to have up to eight on-call pick-ups a year of excess green waste that are in bags and four on-call pick-ups per year for excess trash in bags free of charge.

“We know there are times when you have cleaned your yard or a [wind incident] or you had a party and have extra [trash],” he said.

Niño answered many questions during the presentation including one from local resident Esther Norbut.

“When the other waste company came to [town] they lowered rates too, but over the years they increased,” she asked. “Are you going to raise your rates?” Burrtec has a seven-year contract with La Crescenta.

“We are allowed [adjustments] under our contract,” Niño said. He added he did not think the price of gas and doing business in the area would cause a major increase in rates over the years.

“I can almost assure you it won’t exceed the current rate you have today,” he said.

The company offers smaller bins when requested for a lower rate, and they offer roll out services free to qualifying customers, and even bear resistant garbage bins.

For more information, residents are encouraged to contact Burrtec at (800) 325-9417 or visit www.burrtec.com. The office hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays after the observance of a holiday. Those hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

In addition, to help in the transition the office will be open on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon from March 29 to April 19.

  Mary Okeefe