Where a mountain of trash now stands in Sun Valley, Michael Sangiacomo wants to build a $36 million materials recovery facility. He is chief executive of the garbage transfer station’s owner, San Francisco-based Recology, and has a plan that is part of the garbage industry becoming more environmentally conscious. He believes his new company’s project will reduce dust, odors and noise from what is now an open air trash transfer operation, where garbage trucks leave tons of trash collected from more than 16,000 customers before it gets hauled off to landfills. Sangiacomo said that when the new facility is completed early next year, Recology will not just become better at processing garbage but will do more to see that it is reused. “We would rather recycle and compost than put material in a landfill,” he said. An employee-owned company, Recology provides 134 municipalities in four western states with refuse collecting, processing and composting. The business, which employs 3,300 workers and has annual revenue reaching $900 million, also operates several landfills and hazardous collection facilities. The enclosed Sun Valley facility will comprise 250,000 square feet and bring to the L.A. market the same waste-processing system Recology has used in other communities for decades, a system that combines environmental and community concerns with the profit motive. The facility will feature a rainwater collection and diversion system that will keep runoff from going off the property. The building will be made from 70 percent recycled steel and allow for solar panels to be placed on top to generate power. This is all part of an industry that Sangiacomo said is evolving by recognizing that throwing away even organic matter such as food waste no longer makes sense. “We will do more processing of food waste from commercial establishments as well as other organic material and separate it out for high-quality composting to use in agriculture,” he said. Christopher Doherty, spokesman for the National Waste & Recycling Association in Washington, D.C., said the waste-hauling industry has led the way when it comes to repurposing trash. For instance, there were only about 500 communities with recycling programs in the mid-1990s. That number has now hit 10,000. “That is good for everybody,” he said. “People want to recycle and they are conscious of the type of waste they generate.” Creative uses for recycled products include turning plastic bottles into fleece clothing, organic waste into animal feed and using trash to make an energy source as a replacement for coal. “There is a lot of innovation going on in the waste and recycling space,” Doherty said. Recycling and repurposing trash also fits with the city of L.A.’s agenda. The city is weighing proposals from Recology and 14 other trash haulers as it implements a new franchise system for collection. The new process became law in April 2014, with the city dividing the map into 11 zones, where haulers bid on exclusive contracts to collect waste from businesses and large apartment buildings. The franchise system is expected to begin in January. Bay Area beginnings Recology dates back to the 1920s and a co-op of workers in the San Francisco area who collected refuse for salvage purposes. Over the years, the co-op evolved into a traditional garbage company that took the name NorCal Waste Systems. The name Recology was adopted in 2009 to coincide with a move to a new corporate headquarters in the Financial District and in recognition that it was recycling more from the San Francisco waste stream than was going to landfills. The company entered the L.A. market after its acquisition last year of Crown Disposal Co. Operations here have about 300 employees, with half working at the Sun Valley facility and the other half in trucks collecting garbage. For competitive reasons, Sangiacomo would not disclose Recology’s rates, but he said they are negotiated with customers and there is variance among those served. Crown handled trash hauling in other communities in California and operated a composting facility in Bakersfield. In the San Fernando Valley, however, Crown’s former owner, Tom Fry, was not well regarded by residents living near the Sun Valley transfer station. Congressman Tony Cardenas, whose district includes Sun Valley, related a story at a ground-breaking ceremony for the new facility Jan. 25 of meeting with Fry in 2012 after leaving office as an L.A. city councilman. In that meeting, Cardenas said Fry talked about the good old days before stricter environmental regulations. “He made it clear to me he didn’t want to change,” Cardenas said. But now, the lawmaker continued, the Sun Valley area was in good hands with Recology and its policy of being a good neighbor while also making money. “Now we are seeing progress the community has been begging for for years,” he said, referring to the enclosure to be built on the transfer station. Michael O’Gara, a member of the Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Council, said he has seen a big improvement in the way the new owner operates the transfer station. One change from Crown is that Recology has committed to quarterly meetings with community groups. “That is a step in itself that is big,” O’Gara said. “The previous owner did not want to know who we were.” Still, while the neighborhood council supports the plan to enclose the materials recovery facility, O’Gara said, there is more that Recology can do to improve the air quality in the East Valley. The council would like to see the company switch out diesel collection trucks for those powered by liquefied natural gas. (This proposal has not yet been broached with Recology, he said.) “We have horrible air pollution in Sun Valley, Arleta, Pacoima and even Burbank and in most cases it is the heavy industry,” he said. The coated corrugated metal building will be constructed by Facility Builders & Erectors Inc. of Anaheim. The transfer station and materials separations work will continue while construction takes place. Inside, the building will feature standard machinery in the industry – conveyors, shredders, screens, separators and bailers. “We have a different set of toys than most businesses,” said Sangiacomo. The project is being financed by an existing line of credit, he said, adding that there will not be a mortgage on the land itself. Recology had been in private hands for much of its history until becoming employee owned in the mid-1980s. The company touts a community-first business model, and management encourages employees to spend time volunteering for organizations including AmeriCorps and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The company has had its share of legal issues over the years. For instance, a NorCal Waste vice president in 1999 pleaded guilty in conspiring to pay bribes to get waste hauling business in San Bernardino County. NorCal settled a civil suit arising from that case for $6.5 million. Last year, Recology agreed to pay a $440,440 penalty for failing to install a system to collect water that leaches from compost piles at its Marysville landfill. Also last year, Waste Management of Alameda County Inc., a subsidiary of Houston-based trash giant Waste Management Inc., filed a lawsuit in state court alleging the city and county of San Francisco didn’t follow bidding rules in awarding a $130 million contract to Recology. Also, a San Francisco city ordinance in place since 1932 giving Recology waste-hauling rights has come under fire from an independent budget analyst to the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors. Sangiacomo said the company does have an exclusive arrangement for collecting garbage but that it is regulated under the 83-year-old ordinance. “This is very similar to franchise arrangements, except that the ordinance does not have a definite life, rather it stays in existence until the voters determine to amend or revoke it,” he said. A 2102 ballot initiative to change the system and require the city to award separate contracts for residential and commercial collection, transporting garbage and processing recyclables was defeated. Reclaimed art One novel aspect of Recology’s Sun Valley facility will be its artist-in-residence program that will duplicate a similar program the company has run in San Francisco since 1989. The company invites artists of any type for a 120-day residency in which they can scavenge for art material. The artists receive a stipend and are required to be on site for tours by school groups. The artists’ work goes on display when the residency ends. Since starting, more than 150 artists have gone through the San Francisco program, Sangiacomo said. “We do this to help people appreciate what you can do with most of the stuff that we throw away,” he said. The artist program started primarily with metal sculptures and expanded into other areas, including clothing and a symphony written by composer Nathaniel Stookey called “Junkestra,” which was performed on two dozen instruments made from items scrounged from the trash pile. Sangiacomo said the program fits with Recology’s corporate culture of increasing public awareness of trash and its possibilities. For example, the company put on an art-from-garbage exhibit two years ago in a terminal at San Francisco International Airport. It proved so popular airport officials decided to extend its run. “We were there for more than seven months, double the typical exhibit (time),” Sangiacomo said.
Taking Out Trash
