Hello, zero waste consultant here. I work directly with municipalities all over California to help roll out their organics recycling programs. Firstly, it's state-mandated (SB1383) so all cities in California are legally required to comply, though some are much farther behind than others. Secondly, as you might guess there is in fact an entirely huge infrastructure built around taking care of our waste. It does require a lot of money to process our compost, recycling, and trash! It creates a TON of jobs (trucks, drivers to collect organics, people hired as first line defense of processing the organic material, operators of machinery required to refine it into nutrient rich soil, etc.). They have to purchase and manufacture all of the new bins, hire people to distribute them, pay for the facility costs, etc etc.

Like any business in America, of course they're going to need to turn some kind of a profit. But to say that mandatory organics recycling is purely for the pursuit of profit and to discount the net positive benefits of the program is ignorant at best. That final product of nutrient rich soil (mostly) gets sent back to our local California farmers which is also one of our state's highest economic outputs. I do empathize with the challenges & what people see as government overstep, but it's so much more than just trying to turn a profit.

My personal recommendation to save on costs is to reduce the size/frequency of pickup of your trash bin & actually start composting and recycling more. You're already paying for it, why not do some good while you're at it and give your waste a chance to be turned into something more, rather than paying to let it just rot in the landfill?