Oxnard Dumping Recyclables at Landfill : Environment: The city says it would have to pay twice as much to take the daily four to 10 tons of material to a recycling center.

The city of Oxnard is dumping four to 10 tons a day of waste, set aside by local businesses and residents for recycling, into Bailard Landfill to avoid the higher cost of taking the loads to a recycling center.

The practice of dumping the waste directly into the landfill instead of first sorting all of it for recycling purposes has been going on for about two months, city officials acknowledged last week.

While Ventura Regional Sanitation District employees process and sort some of the recyclable waste that Oxnard takes to the landfill, about 50% is simply thrown into a trash pile and buried in the landfill, county sanitation officials said.

Oxnard officials conceded the city could take its loads to Ventura’s Gold Coast Recycling Center instead of dumping it in the landfill, but they said the cost per ton would double.

“We could always process everything, but that would be too expensive,” said Ben Wong, Oxnard’s utility director. “We are an enterprise. Everything we do reflects on the residents’ trash bill, and we are watching every dollar.”

Oxnard picks up 10 to 30 tons of recyclable materials every day from residential and commercial sources. The vast bulk of that comes from commercial sources and is not usually separated as neatly from other garbage as materials set aside by residents.

Only a relatively small amount of recyclable material--about two tons a day--is collected from the city’s pilot curbside recycling program in residential neighborhoods, which covers about 3,000 homes, Wong said.

Those curbside loads--considered “rich loads” in trash jargon because about 85% can be resold in the recycling market--have never been part of the recyclables taken to the Bailard Landfill.

Instead, Oxnard’s curbside recyclables are taken to Gold Coast, at a cost to the city of $23 to $35 per ton depending on how well the recyclables sell in the open market.

The rest of the recyclables, picked up from businesses, industries, mobile home parks and apartments, have always been taken to Bailard Landfill. Only about 35% of this trash can be recycled, Wong said.

Bailard has a small material recovery station where recyclables are sorted out to be sold. In the past, Bailard sorted out all the recyclables that were taken there, including Oxnard’s.

But in recent weeks the landfill has been forced to dump about half the loads without sorting through them because it is receiving more recyclables from other sources than it can handle, district officials said.

In July, Bailard expanded its recycling activities with a program to recover wood and garden waste, taking up space and manpower that had been allocated to Oxnard’s trash, said Kelly Polk, special projects manager for the sanitation district.

About the same time, county health officials warned the landfill operator to reduce the number of workers at the recovery station. The county was concerned that the crowded station represented a potential health hazard to the workers, Polk added.

“We used to have 20 to 30 people working at the recovery station full time. Since the warning was issued, we have diverted more than half our personnel to other areas,” Polk said.

As a result, a significant portion of the material that businesses and apartment dwellers in Oxnard set aside for recycling ends up in the trash pile. Wong estimated that four to 10 tons per day suffer that fate.

Polk said that on occasion as much as 80% of the recyclables that are unloaded on Bailard’s recovery station are picked up by a crane at the end of the day and unloaded onto the landfill, untouched.

“We try to recover as much as possible, but there is definitely a time factor involved,” said Gary Haden, the sanitation district’s solid waste operations manager. “We can’t get to all the loads.”

The news that only some of the recyclables they put out are being processed came as a shock to some of the business owners and apartment managers who participate in the city’s recycling program.

“I think it’s bad, that’s my idea,” said Lal Silva, manager at the Stop N’ Go Market on Ventura Road. “It’s surely a shame.”

“If it’s true, I’d be very disappointed,” said Julie Elverum, who manages Royal Duke mobile home park. “I’m sure the residents would be disappointed too.”

Ventura County Environmental Coalition Vice President Cynthia Leak was equally disappointed, but not nearly as surprised.

“It’s disgusting,” she said. “I’m very upset at the lack of recycling in Ventura County, but I don’t know what to do about it.”

Oxnard pays Bailard $44 a ton to take the loads it hauls to the landfill. Taking them to Gold Coast would cost the city more than $80 a ton in processing fees, transportation, and landfill costs for the waste that can’t be recycled, Wong said.

Defending their practices, Oxnard officials said they are pursuing recycling aggressively. They said 6,000 homes are about to be added to the curbside pilot program. By 1994, the program will encompass all of Oxnard’s 26,000 homes, Wong said.

Oxnard officials also have been visiting businesses and apartment complexes to tell people how to put out less wasteful loads, Wong said.

The city is also finalizing a contract with Gold Coast to increase the tonnage taken to the center--instead of to the Bailard Landfill--to at least 10 tons a day. On Tuesday, the council is scheduled to vote on whether to authorize staff to negotiate an agreement with the recycling center.

However, until Oxnard increases its curbside program and the commercial loads get cleaner, the cost of having everything recycled will remain prohibitive, city officials said.

“This city is doing its fair share toward recycling,” said Councilwoman Dorothy Maron, Oxnard’s representative to the sanitation district and the Ventura County Waste Commission.

“This is the real world, and we can’t afford to recycle everything. As time goes on, we’ll do more and more.”

Meanwhile, Gold Coast and its operating partner, the city of Ventura, are still waiting for a greater amount of Oxnard’s recyclable trash. Ventura Mayor Richard Francis said cash-strapped Oxnard is dragging its feet to avoid paying the higher costs that recycling demands.

“We need the volume,” Francis said. “We operate in economies of scale, and when Oxnard reneges in its promise to bring recyclables to Gold Coast, everybody gets hurt.”

Francis also criticized his Oxnard peers for not telling residents that some of the materials they set aside for recycling go straight to the landfill.

“A fraud is never a palatable practice, but when public servants do it, it’s terribly distasteful,” he said.

Maron denied that charge.

“If we told people that their recyclables end up in the dump, would they still be putting them out?” she asked. “We have to be positive about all this, because we’re working hard to get the job done.”