Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Glossy papers await to be recycled at Recycle Central, operated by Recology, at Pier 96 on Dec. 17, 2010

Garbage is, obviously, a dirty business. But for Recology, the outfit that has had a monopoly on handling San Francisco’s detritus for the past 80 years, it is one sweet gig. And one the company would very much like to keep.

Mike Sangiacomo, the company’s president, speaks with pride about San Francisco’s recycling rate, among the nation’s highest. “Anybody can collect garbage, put it in a hole and cover it up. Anyone can do that,” he said. In San Francisco, only 23 percent of what is thrown away ends up in a landfill.

Recology’s swank headquarters in the Financial District are a testament to its success, with sweeping views of the bay and art installations made from salvaged garbage. “We do a heck of a job for the city,” said Sangiacomo, whose father, an Italian immigrant, operated a garbage route here for 30 years. “Why screw up a system that works well?”

But Recology is under siege. In February, Harvey Rose, the independent budget analyst to the Board of Supervisors, sounded an alarm about the unusual nature of the company’s deal with the city — a no-bid, no-franchise-fee garbage concession, in perpetuity.

The deal dates back to 1932. In the same election in which Franklin D. Roosevelt won his first term, San Franciscans permanently awarded the right to collect the city’s garbage to individuals or mom-and-pop operations that held the city’s 97 existing route permits. In short order, the holders of all of the permits banded together. The permits became assets of a company, originally jointly owned by the 97 permit-holders, and that company grew into what is now Recology.

Ever since, Rose’s report said, Recology has been “the City’s permanent and exclusive refuse collection firm, without Recology ever having undergone the City’s normal competitive bidding process.” While residential rates are overseen by a city rate board, Recology’s posted commercial rates are unregulated and are far higher than those paid by businesses in other Bay Area communities, according to a city study released last month.

Recology has “the only such monopoly among 29 jurisdictions in the Bay Area,” said Quentin Kopp, the former judge, state senator and city supervisor. A few days ago, a group led by Kopp submitted a ballot initiative that would mandate the garbage contract’s being put out for competitive bid. Kopp said the monopoly had cost San Francisco hundreds of millions of dollars in inflated rates and forgone franchise fees over the years.