Oxnard Will Break Ground for Trash Center

Oxnard officials will break ground today on a $13.6-million trash center they say will help the city reach a goal of recycling 50% of its waste by the year 2000.

Scheduled to open in July, 1996, the materials-recovery and waste-transfer facility will be built on a 16.5-acre site on the southeast corner of Del Norte Boulevard and Sturgis Road. Oxnard plans to pay for the project, which totals $25 million including equipment and debt service, with the sale of bonds.

Oxnard will pay BLT Enterprises of Oxnard Inc., a refuse company, about $5 million in 1996 to oversee the construction of the Del Norte Regional Recycling and Transfer Station and to run it. The annual fee the city pays BLT will vary depending on the tonnage of trash received.

Oxnard generates 180,000 tons of trash annually, more than any other city in the county. Oxnard refuse superintendent Ruben Mesa said BLT plans to attract trash from other cities to the transfer station.

“Tons talk,” Mesa said. “The more tons you collect, the lower your processing costs and the better rates you give your customers.”

Officials have timed the facility’s opening to coincide with the shutdown of the Bailard Landfill, expected next summer.

A state law mandates that cities and counties recycle 25% of their trash by 1995 and 50% by 2000. Mesa said the city will look at new ways to compost trash and to use sludge produced by waste-water treatment plants to meet the goals.