Countywide : Study Backs Single Recycling Facility

A study commissioned by the Ventura County Waste Commission has concluded that a single countywide facility to separate recyclable material from trash would be less expensive to operate than several subregional facilities.

In the report presented to the commission Thursday by CalRecovery, the consulting firm concluded that a proposal by BLT Enterprises of Los Angeles would result in lower costs than plans submitted by two competing companies.

BLT Enterprises is currently planning a materials recovery and trash transfer facility in Oxnard, a proposal that the county waste commission has opposed in the past.

But CalRecovery said that although the bid by Facility Systems Engineering of Inglewood was higher than BLT’s, the county should continue negotiating with both firms for more-detailed estimates.

The authors also said that BLT’s proposal for yard and wood wastes was insufficient to guarantee that the county could meet a state-mandated goal to cut in half by the year 2000 the amount of solid waste going to landfills.

Gold Coast Recycling Industries, which already operates a 200-ton-a-day facility in Ventura, did not submit a plan for a countywide facility, but the waste commission, which has representatives from each of the county’s cities and fromcounty government, agreed to allow Gold Coast to present another bid.

According to the report, which analyzed estimated costs over a 16-year period, trash sorted at a countywide facility would cost west county cities between $105.20 per ton under the BLT plan and $119.20 per ton for the Facility Systems Engineering proposal.