NEWPORT BEACH : Refuse-Transfer Site Opens to Cut Costs

The city has opened a refuse-transfer station that is expected to reduce the number of trips that garbage trucks have to make to a landfill and save the city about $1,000 a day.

The station will allow the city’s trash trucks to dump their loads into larger trucks that will take the refuse to the new Bee Canyon landfill in southeast Irvine. Newport Beach previously dumped its trash at the Coyote Canyon landfill at the Irvine-Newport Beach border.

“The bottom line is, it just allows the city to act very efficiently, even after having to haul an extra 25.6 miles to the new landfill,” said David Niederhaus, Newport Beach general services director.

The new procedure will eliminate about 45 truck trips a day, saving gas, manpower and the purchase of additional trucks, he said.

Newport Beach is the only Orange County city that still has its own fleet of garbage trucks, according to Niederhaus. Of the fleet of 23, 11 are “miniature” trucks designed to maneuver in areas of town with narrow streets, Niederhaus said.

An average truck holds between 10 and 12 tons of refuse; the smaller vehicles hold only 2 or 3 tons each, he said. The city’s smallest truck measures only 19 feet.

The new 125-square-foot refuse center at 592 Superior Ave. cost $278,131 to build. The station will allow trucks to back onto a ramp and dump their loads into metal containers that then funnel trash into trucks more than 50 feet long, Niederhaus said. The two new tractors and three trailers cost $246,000, he said.