For $7.42 a month, customers who sign up for the program will be provided with a 95-gallon green waste cart, which can be set out the same day as their scheduled refuse and recyclable material collection.

The Lassen Regional Solid Waste Management Authority approved amending the franchise agreement for green waste collection in the secondary area at its Tuesday, June 26 meeting.

Accepted green waste includes leaves, grass clippings, small branches and untreated wood.Bricks, concrete pieces, treated wood, pet waste, ashes, sawdust and tree stumps are not allowed.

According to Damon Shea, general manager for C & S Waste Solutions of Lassen County, people should not bag the green waste debris as it ishauled to the Bass Hill Landfill and ground.

For more information call 252-1200.

Green waste collection services are already offered for customers in the primary franchise area including Susanville, Lake Forest, Litchfield, Janesville and Standish for $4.89 per month.

The higher rate for people living in the secondary area is due to the long distances from the Bass Hill Landfill.

With the uncertainty regarding the number of residents in the secondary area who may sign up for green waste collection services, C & S Waste will have the opportunity to revise the fee at the end of 2012.

The authority sent C & S Waste a letter requesting a proposal for green waste collection services in the secondary area after Jim Chapman, an alternate director at the May 22 meeting, forwarded a request to staff from directors Bob Pyle and Jack Hanson about providing collection to Westwood, Spalding and Herlong.

In response to the extension,Pyle said he appreciated it, but he would like to see something be re-enacted for those who are not signed up for garbage collection services with C & S Waste Solutions.

Hanson said he echoes those comments.

Authority manager Tom Valentino said there are several options the authority is looking at including working with C & S Waste in providing bins in Herlong, Westwood and Spalding for green waste collection events.

According to Valentino, the authority suspended its green waste disposal program at the three outlying areas because the stockpiles were contaminated due to people throwing other garbage in with their green waste and the piles couldn’t even be burned.

In Herlong, Valentino said the stockpile was so badly contaminated it had to be hauled to the Bass Hill Landfill to be disposed, which cost the authority a lot of money.

People can dispose of green waste at the transfer stations only if it’s in the trash bins they bring in, but Valentino said it costs $8 per cubic yard.

Valentino said he thinks the green waste program offered by C & S Waste Solutions is very inexpensive at less than $2 per week.