Oxnard Doubles Collection of Recyclables Over 4 Months

In less than four months, the city of Oxnard has doubled its curbside recycling collection and more than quadrupled the tonnage of materials taken to the regional recycling center, city officials announced Tuesday.

And this week, Oxnard’s fledgling recycling program took a major step forward by adding to its ranks the highest-profile business campus in the city--the Oxnard Financial Plaza.

“This is the Cadillac of our office paper recycling program,” Stan Hakes, Oxnard’s recycling coordinator, told about 50 Financial Plaza business representatives at a breakfast to kick off the program.

City officials said Tuesday that so far, they have reduced the amount of garbage that the city sends to Bailard Landfill by 22% compared with last year. Under state law, California cities must reduce landfill use by 25% by 1995 or face fines of up to $10,000 a day.

Oxnard officials said Tuesday that they will easily reach that goal and are working on a state-mandated 50% reduction in waste by 2000.

“We’ve done a lot in a short period of time without spending a lot of money,” said John Zaragoza, Oxnard’s refuse coordinator.

Just four months ago, Oxnard was recycling only a relatively small amount of the trash set aside in the city for recycling purposes.

The city’s trash hauler was picking up about 10 tons per day of materials set aside by businesses and residents for recycling, but most of the materials ended up buried in Bailard landfill. Only three tons per day were being taken to the Gold Coast recycling center in Ventura.

Of the city’s 25,000 single-family residences, only 3,000 had received recycling bins. A city-sponsored recycling program for schools was still half a dozen campuses short of full implementation.

But two weeks after The Times reported in September that most of Oxnard’s recyclable materials were being dumped in the landfill, Oxnard signed a contract with Gold Coast and increased its daily contribution to about 17 tons.

On Tuesday, both Zaragoza and Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi pointed out that Oxnard’s recyclables no longer go to Bailard.

“We’re diverting 15 to 20 tons of materials to Gold Coast that were previously going to the landfill,” Takasugi said.

The breakfast afforded city officials the opportunity to mention other recent accomplishments:

* The curbside recycling program has doubled in scope and now encompasses 6,000 homes, with another 4,000 scheduled to be added next month. City officials estimate that all 25,000 houses will have recycling by July.

* The school program has been completed. The city’s four elementary school districts (20 campuses) and the high school district (three campuses) recycle mixed paper and food containers. Two private schools and Oxnard College also participate. No other city in the county has a comparable program.

* The city has begun a pilot recycling program for apartments and condominiums at Anacapa Isle Apartments on Peninsula Road.

* Three mobile-home parks are participating in city-sponsored newspaper recycling programs.

“We’ve really kicked our program into high gear these last six months,” Hakes said.

Moreover, the city’s recycling efforts so far have not cost anything in general fund revenues, city officials said.

Residential recycling is subsidized by a $1.49 fee that residents pay on their trash bills, Zaragoza said.

Funds for planning and implementing the recycling program come from $245,000 budgeted for the city’s refuse division, which operates as a self-supporting business, Hakes said.

And the cost of processing loads at Gold Coast--partly offset by revenues from the sale of recyclables--comes out to be about the same as the city would have to spend in landfill fees, Hakes said.

“We’re proud of our program,” he said. “And we want people to know about it.”