O.C. college hopes to avoid dumping its recycling center

Other people’s trash used to be treasure at Orange Coast College’s Recycling Center — where employees accepted everything from cans and bottles to scrap metal and cooking oil — but the recycling business isn’t what it used to be.

Citing a staffing shortage, members of the Costa Mesa campus’ Associated Students of Orange Coast College, which has owned the center for more than 50 years and oversees its budget, decided to close up shop in early November after the number of full-time union employees working there had dwindled from four to zero.

Operators are now looking for a third-party vendor to run the center on a contract basis in hopes it can continue serving the community, while providing job opportunities for students who work there. Although other centers operate in Huntington Beach and Santa Ana, there is no other recycling option in Costa Mesa.

But record-low commodity values, combined with a campuswide hiring freeze, more robust residential recycling programs and a decline in foot traffic, make the prospect of returning the OCC Recycling Center to its glory days dicey.

Ruben Barriga, director of college and community services, who oversees various on-campus enterprises, including the recycling center, the OCC Swap Meet and the campus mailroom, said what seemed like a downward trend bottomed out during the pandemic.

“Everything changed right after COVID,” Barriga said. “A lot of people couldn’t go outside of their home to go to the recycling center. Some people decided they wanted to throw it away or wanted someone to pick it up and donate it.”

During the 2022-23 school year, the facility operated at a deficit of about $183,000, records indicate. The previous year, it lost about $89,000. Those shortfalls are paid for out of the budget allocation of the Associated Students of Orange Coast College, according to Rich Pagel, the college’s vice president of administrative services.

“The students have passed a budget, and they’ve allocated enough resources to cover the negative budget this year,” Pagel said. “It’s really a struggling business — and it’s a changing world. Do we really need this type of recycling still, or is it more important than ever? I don’t know.”

While the cost of operating the center has risen, the value the college receives from the tons of materials it trucks to area processing plants has decreased dramatically. Barriga said the center used to receive $140 to $160 for a ton of cardboard. Now the going rate is $40.

“The public and the community want to do the right thing, they want to save the Earth, but we get no value for that,” he added.

Meanwhile, the redemption value people receive per bottle or can has remained stagnant, possibly causing a decline in the number of people who recycle. Pagel said the financial imbalance created a bit of an existential crisis for the center.

“The [Associated Student Government] passed a resolution in May 2023 asking the administration to take action because they couldn’t sustain it,” he said. “Our business is education, it’s not really recycling. So, our goal now is to regroup and form a partnership with a third-party provider.”

Staff plan to submit some kind of proposal to the Associated Students of Orange Coast College after students return to campus from winter break later this month. The hope is to find someone who shares the college’s values and beliefs about recycling.

“I hope whoever the third party is, it’s someone who’s going to come in and be part of the community and is fully involved in re-creating what we had pre-COVID,” Barriga said.

Pagel, too, is optimistic. “We are going to reopen — that is a fact,” he said. “The facility is clean and ready to go.”