Agenda Item Wording:
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Presentation of Solid Waste Divisions - Presentation of all Solid Waste Divisions pertaining to historical background, service and logistics, and new laws and technology.
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Deadline for Action: 5/20/2024
Submitting Department: Public Works
Contact Name and Phone Number: Jason Serpa, Public Works Manager, jason.serpa@visalia.city, 713-4533; Nick Bartsch, Public Works Director, nick.bartsch@visalia.city, 713-4052
Department Recommendation:
Staff recommends that Council receive the presentation on the City of Visalia Solid Waste Department.
Background Discussion:
The City of Visalia has delivered Solid Waste service to residents since 1969. Starting with only 4 residential and 3 commercial routes, it has grown to 44 residential, 18 commercial, and 4 roll-off bin routes. In that same amount of time, the City population has grown from an estimated 40,000 to 146,073 residents. The service, in accordance with State regulation, has also added recycling and organics routes, growing the department by the number of pickups that must be completed per week. With recent adds to the technology of each truck, this increased workload has been met and balanced by the efficiencies realized from the routing software implemented to the commercial division.
Historically, the City has used many sites for the dumping of waste, but most recently the contract for the landfill has been with Tulare County for the use of their County-wide landfills. For blue recycling (e.g., plastic, aluminum, glass), the City currently has a contract with Pena's Disposal, Inc., the only operator of a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) for efficient disposal. Pena's utilizes a transfer station at the Tulare County Landfill so that City trucks have one destination for dumping. For green recycling (e.g., yard waste, food scraps), the City splits the contracted green waste between Waste Management and West Coast...
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