City Council
259 N. Wilma Avenue
Ripon, CA 95366
MEMO
To: Honorable City Council
From: James Pease, Public Works Director
Date: 08/13/2024
Subject: Recycling Center Operating Agreement
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the Recycling Center Operating Agreement between the City of Ripon and the Greater Valley Conservation Corps.
BACKGROUND:
In 2005, the City of Ripon and the Ripon Unified School District (RUSD) established a partnership for a community recycling program to promote recycling in the community and raise funds for participating school-based parent faculty groups. The recycling program also aided the City in meeting certain CalRecycle mandated goals for reducing residential and business waste.
RUSD and the parent faculty groups provided volunteers to staff the recycling center in order to process the material received and the City provided the location and transportation along with maintenance of the cardboard compactor. The volunteer work based program resulted in thousands of tons of recyclable material recovered and hundreds of thousands of dollars generated for the participating schools since the program began.
Unfortunately, recruiting volunteers over the past few years has been an ongoing challenge for the parent faculty groups and RUSD. The City hired two-part time employees in December of 2023 to assist with staffing the recycling center. The City was notified earlier this year that at the end of the 2024 school year (May 2024), RUSD and the parent faculty groups would no longer provide volunteers to operate the recycling center. City staff is currently operating the recycling center.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS:
In May 2024, the City advertised to local non-profits the opportunity to partner with the City to provide volunteers to staff the recycling center with all funds generated could be directed to the non-profit organization. The response was very limited with no organization proposing to completely take over the volunteer hours.
The City was approached by the Greater Valley Conservation Corps (GVCC), a division of the California Local Conservation Corps (LCC). The GVCC proposed a partnership with the City to help facilitate operations at the recycling center which provides multiple benefits to both parties.
The GVCC provides recycling jobs, education and career training for young people ages 18-26.
Corpsmembers complete a year of paid service to communities while working to increase recycling. Currently CalRecycle provides grants to fourteen LCC programs around the State.
These regional Corps are certified by the California Conservation Corps State Department.
The attached Recycling Center Operating Agreement defines the responsibilities between the City of Ripon and the GVCC to operate the recycling center. The following highlights the notable modifications to the recycling center operations along with benefits to residents and the City:
- Will now be open Tuesday – Friday 8:00am – 6:00pm and Saturday 8:00am – 3:00pm, closed on Sunday and Monday. This will increase the availability of the recycling center for residents and businesses from 24 hours per week to 47 hours per week. - Accepted Items include Cardboard, Mixed Paper/Newspaper, Glass, CRV (aluminum cans and plastic bottles), Mattresses and Electronic Waste (tvs, computers, monitors, radios, power tools, etc.). The added Mattress drop-off location and expanded electronic waste recycling collection will be at no cost to residents. - Eliminated Items include Styrofoam and Mixed/Junk Plastic which are not currently being recycled and incur landfill tipping fees. This will reduce the overall operating expenses at the Recycling Center. Residents can still place these items in their black cans where they will be collected and hauled more efficiently. - The GVCC will haul and receive all revenue generated from the glass, CRV, mattresses and electronics.
- The City will haul and receive all revenue generated from the mixed paper/newspaper and cardboard which will go directly back into the Garbage Enterprise Operating fund.
The goal of the partnership with the GVCC at the recycling center is to lower expenses of the Garbage Enterprise Fund (which is passed on to the residents of Ripon), provide more availability to the public to recycle material, expand the types of recyclable material accepted and increase the overall amount of recyclable material received. The agreement terminates July 31, 2025, staff will evaluate the operation and progress of the recycling center in the first quarter of 2025.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Staff performed cost comparisons for several different options to process recyclable material while maintaining regulatory compliance using actual tonnage received during the 2023 calendar year. These included the partnership with the GVCC to operate the recycling center, City staff solely operating the recycling center and finally completely eliminating the recycling center by placing all recyclables in the black can to be processed at the Gilton facility. The following is a summary of these comparisons:
Partnership with the GVCC to operate recycling center
Estimated expense includes hauling cardboard & mixed
paper and staffing the recycling center for 12 hours per week. -$45,200
Estimated revenue includes cardboard at the current rate of $60/ton. $13,200
Total expense $32,000
City staff to operate recycling center
Estimated expense includes hauling all recyclable
material and staffing the recycling center 56 hours per week. -$90,000
Estimated revenue includes cardboard, glass, CRV,
mattresses and electronics at current market rates. $31,000 Total expense $59,000
Eliminate recycling center
Estimated expense includes hauling all recyclable
material to the Gilton processing facility (residents
will place material in black cans). Total expense $60,000
There are several variables that will impact the expenses including the recyclable rates, tipping fee increases, labor increases and volume of recyclable material received. Due to the increased hours the recycling center will be open with the GVCC partnership, staff anticipates an increase in recyclable material received which will further lower the overall expense to the Garbage Enterprise Operating fund moving forward.
Attachments:
1. GVCC Recycling Center Operating Agreement