The City Council voted Tuesday night to all but kill leaf collection by The Claw, scale back the collection of recyclables from homes and to get out of the commercial solid waste business.
The council voted unanimously to make the changes.
The city's solid waste division will now collect recyclables from homes every two weeks, down from the weekly service currently offered. City officials said they did not expect the change to create an inconvenience for homeowners, most of whom they said do not fill up their recycling bins on a weekly basis.
Scaling back recyclable collection will save the city an estimated $1 million a year, city officials said. In exchange for less frequent collection, officials said that residential solid waste rates will remain stable for the next three years.
The city's decision to stop offering solid waste collection to commercial clients was the result of a dwindling market share. The city now collects waste from just 8 percent of the city's businesses. That service will now end by Oct. 1.
City officials will also bring back a popular program that was killed three years ago allowing residents to schedule collections of bulky items from their homes.
The decision to shelve The Claw will still need to be approved by voters. The council is moving forward with placing a measure on the November ballot to repeal 1977's Measure A, which prohibits the city from requiring green waste bins.
Even if The Claw service is scaled back, city officials said the machine would still be used from November to January, during peak leaf season.
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