City buys recycling facility to preserve low costs
For the first time in its history, the city of Bakersfield plans to operate its own recycling facility.
On Wednesday, the Bakersfield City Council approved the $3 million purchase of an existing materials recovery facility operated by Bakersfield ARC Recycling, a local company that provides recycling services along with job training and experience for individuals with developmental disabilities.
The move comes as the costs of recycling have skyrocketed, causing BARC to be unable to continue offering its recycling services to the city. That left the city with only one materials recovery facility, known as a MRF, which was operated by Metropolitan Recycling.
Previously, Metropolitan and BARC had split the city’s recycling, taking roughly half each. But without competition, city officials feared costs could increase, and the city would be in little position to understand why.
“When we take it and outsource it to other vendors, we lose control of the costs, and they can charge us whatever they want,” said Bakersfield Public Works Director Nick Fidler.
With the second lowest recycling rates in the state — only Glendale is lower — Bakersfield proudly protects its costs. City officials see the new facility as a way to help control costs. The city estimates that rate payers will save around $3.40 per year with the purchase. It may not be much for the individual, but over 10 years, consumers will save $3.7 million.
Still, not all councilmembers are on board. Both Patty Gray and Ken Weir voted against the purchase.
“I don’t feel that it’s prudent for the city to go into the recy
cling business with an uncertain future,” Gray said. “We could be forced to make a bigger investment than was originally planned and possibly to hire city employees that are going to cost this city a lot of money for decades to come.”
The recycling industry across the world has struggled since China stopped accepting most recyclables in 2017. That caused Bakersfield to go from being paid $65 a ton for recyclable materials to having to pay $143 per ton.
That has threatened municipal budgets, especially as California mandates cities have a diversion rate of 75 percent by 2026.
As part of the agreement with BARC, the city will own the property outright in 10 years. As payment, the city plans to use the unique funding strategy of having the sewer enterprise fund loan the purchase amount to the refuse fund. The refuse fund will then pay back the sewer fund at 1.5 percent interest over the next 10 years.
The city does not expect the loan to impact rate payers. The city plans to use BARC employees for the time being.
“This is a good way for us to manage our rates in our recycling program and it’s a good way for us to help with BARC’s mission,” said Assistant Public Works Director Greg Ollivier. “We’re looking forward to good things to come.”