Save the Ecology Center Recycling Program!

Summary of the Situation

Last fall, the Berkeley City Council commissioned an assessment of Berkeley's solid waste division from Irvine-based consultants Sloan Vazquez LLC. A few weeks ago, the firm released their report, which recommended, among other actions, that the City of Berkeley terminate the Ecology Center's curbside recycling program. The City intended to incorporate the curbside recycling program into their own solid waste department by purchasing the Ecology Center's trucks and using their own administrative staffing.

The report was filled with inaccurate figures, inappropriate comparisons, irresponsible assertions, and significant oversights. At no point did Sloan Vazquez interview Ecology Center Recycling staff to verify their numbers or assumptions. Third party consultants have reviewed the report and find it lacking and inaccurate on a number of fronts. To read two consultants' criticisms, click here and here. Berkeley's Zero Waste Commission deemed the report incomplete.

We believe that the termination of the Ecology Center's recycling contract would not result in the savings that Sloan Vazquez LLC estimates, and that instead, the proposed change would lead to continued budget deficits, a decline in customer service, and the loss of an outstanding community program.

On March 21, the Ecology Center's recycling committee met with the City of Berkeley's senior management to explore more realistic cost-cutting strategies. At the March 29 City Council Meeting, the City Manager presented his plans for closing the deficit, which included working with the Ecology Center to cut costs while maintaining our contract. Some of the ideas that will be pursued include switching from two-driver routes to one-driver routes, and deleting currently unfilled administrative positions. The community support that the Ecology Center has received throughout this process has been incredible. Thank you to all who have communicated with the City and Council your unwavering support for the Ecology Center and our recycling program. We will continue to keep you updated.

About Our Current Contract

Recycling contracts are typically for 10 years or more. This is the time frame needed to operate such an endeavor. In 1992, the City of Berkeley issued an RFP (request for proposals), inviting suppliers to submit bids for a curbside recycling program that fit the City's priorities. The Ecology Center was awarded the contract at that time. In 1999, the City issued an RFQ, and again the Ecology Center was selected as the City’s recycling partner. Since then, the City has extended the Ecology Center's contract with a series of very short-term extensions until 2009. At that time, the City Auditor did a review of the contracts in the solid waste division and found our contract to be managed well. It was clear that our service had been excellent, and that our cost and partnership were a good deal for the city, so rather than waste taxpayer money on a long and costly RFP process, the City engaged in renewing the recycling contract with the Ecology Center. To our understanding, this decision was based on over 10 years of a completely transparent cost plus contract, for which the Ecology Center was required to document every cent invoiced to the City. During the period of this contract, the Ecology Center was able to save the city millions of dollars.

During the 2009 contract negotiations, the City compared our contract cost to their own expenses and that of comparable programs in the region. They reviewed our expenses in depth and spent over a year at the negotiating table to arrive at a new contract figure, which was larger because the City wished to receive the income from the sale of recyclables directly and to change the contract from a cost plus model to a fixed fee contract, which shifts all the financial risks to the Ecology Center. The City Council was involved in this process and approved the contract in December of 2009.

Since then, we have successfully rolled out the new split-cart program and continue to operate a highly competitive program. Already, we are collecting 20% more recyclable materials than last year. In January, there was a 100% increase in revenue from the material sales, largely due to increases in tonnage from our split-cart program. These profits from the increased tonnage go straight back to the City. To learn more about the early successes of our new split-cart program, click here.

The Benefits of a Nonprofit Recycler

Curbside recycling began in Berkeley in 1973, pioneered by the Ecology Center. We ran the first curbside recycling operation in the country. Today, we are one of the few nonprofit recyclers left. The fact that we are a mission-driven nonprofit organization, and not a corporate or municipal operation, has several implications:

Superior Customer Service

The Ecology Center's customer service is qualitatively different. The Ecology Center views every call as an opportunity to educate. Our expansive knowledge base enables us to help residents with a wide range of issues, from Universal Waste to plastic bags, refrigerators, and pharmaceuticals. Our radio dispatch to drivers and customer service is integrated so that we can directly problem-solve in the field. Our Recycling hotline and our Information Services hotline both frequently handle service calls from residents who could not get through to the City. Moving the customer service calls that the Ecology Center answers to the City's 311 hotline represents an immediate 10% reduction in customer service due to furloughs.

Drivers of Environmental Policy and Zero Waste Goals

The Ecology Center focuses on both operations and policy: we seek to divert the most recyclables from the landfill in the most efficient way possible, while insisting that the materials we collect are actually recycled back into the highest end-use possible. After years of research into strategies to push Berkeley closer to Zero Waste, we rolled out the split-cart program, which has been an immediate success: we are now collecting 20% more tons of recyclables than the prior year. In January, there was a 100% increase in revenue from the material sales, largely due to increases in tonnage from our split-cart program. These profits from the increased tonnage go straight back to the City. As drivers of policy, we were instrumental in founding the California Product Stewardship Council and promoting Berkeley's Zero Waste Ordinance. We contributed greatly to the City's Climate Action Plan, sharing data on both waste and food systems. We fiscally sponsor GAIA, an international organization that fights for the creation of a closed-loop, materials-efficient economies where all products are reused, repaired or recycled. Over the years, we have hosted many international contingents who to visit and learn about our recycling operations.

Outreach, Education, and Demonstration Projects

The Ecology Center specializes in education, outreach, and demonstration to encourage responsible waste practices. We produce and distribute fact sheets on waste-related issues online and through our center. We field over 4800 requests for environmental information every year. We are able to launch innovative pilot projects that forge connections between our programs, such as turning the three weekly Berkeley Farmers' Markets into Zero Waste Zones, where the highest level of resource recovery is demonstrated and enabled. The California Resource Recovery Association chose this project as the winner of the 2010 Zero Waste Achievement award.

Training Workers

The City's solid waste and recycling operations have benefitted from the drivers the Ecology Center hire and train. Many Ecology Center drivers have gone on to work for the City's Solid Waste Division. Youth trained and employed through Farm Fresh Choice have been hired in our recycling department. The Ecology Center is committed to being a conduit through which people can be trained and employed in green-collar jobs.

Problems in the Sloan Vazquez Report

Until Revenue Structure is Fixed, Failure is Assured

During its July 29, 2010 meeting, the City Council explicitly requested a proposal to restructure the solid waste service fees. This report focuses exclusively on cutting costs. Placing the full burden of the budget shortfall on operational efficiencies must be combined with a comprehensive review of the outdated, misleading rate structure that remains tied to the size of residents' garbage carts. As more residents recycle and compost (in alignment with the City's Zero Waste and Climate Action goals), the revenue will continue to fall, though service levels remain the same. Until the rate structure is fixed, the Solid Waste Division will continue to run deficits.

Report Makes Faulty Comparisons

Table 7 in the report is an inappropriate, apples-to-oranges comparison. The table compares our current staffing plan with a staffing plan that the city has not used nor tested. Furthermore, the report does not estimate what it would cost the Ecology Center to enact the desired staffing plan. The 8 truck 8 driver scenario proposed for curbside recycling collection does not take into account overtime and down time when operating without back-up vehicles and additional staffing. We actually have 14 budgeted employees for 6 routes with 7 vehicles to ensure coverage of sick, vacation, and downed time. The consultant's estimate of City costs to run the program does not include necessary costs like safety equipment, employee trainings, HR support, and uniforms.

One-Driver Routes Ill-Advised in Specific Berkeley Locations

The consultants claim that shifting recycling routes to using fewer drivers and more trucks will result in savings. The Ecology Center has experimented with one-driver routes in the past and learned that there are parts of the city where this is not advisable for safety reasons. For instance, a spotter is absolutely required to back on or off of a major artery, such as Ashby Avenue or University Avenue. Since consolidating our routes from eight mixed routes to six 2-person routes, our safety record has improved dramatically. Having a spotter for the very tight streets and backups could not only save a bumper or mirror, but a child or elderly person. While the Ecology Center is open to running single-driver routes if the City desires it, we wish to assert that the particular geography and traffic profile of Berkeley does not insure that savings will result. And it must be recognized that there is a trade-off in terms of public safety. Curiously, the report recommends one 2-person route per day for residential garbage and yard debris collection but not for recyclables.

Report Uses Inaccurate Figures

The number of accounts cited in the report does not match our database; we have approximately 28,000 carts to tip each week, 20% more than in the report. This results in a 933 carts per route on average. Similarly, the estimates used to determine what the City would pay to buy existing Ecology Center trucks and additional trucks is inaccurate: the cost of the truck buy-out would be $1,097,000, not $940,000, and the cost of two side-loading 3-axle drop frame split bodied trucks will be closer to $700K after federal excise taxes.

No Additional Administrative Costs is Improbable.

The report claims that there will be no additional administrative costs associated with the City subsuming the Ecology Center's recycling operation. This is highly implausible. There will be a cost associated with managing more employees, payroll, benefits, truck maintenance, and cart repair, and responding to an additional 10,000 customer service calls. Regardless of existing City administrative resources, cost must be allocated to this at the very least for comparison purposes. City staff is already overburdened. If we currently cannot get a supervisor to return our calls, how will a customer when the supervisor's responsibilities are doubled? The internal administrative overhead reported to us at 27% is not evident in their projection.

Report Research was Conducted During Highly Atypical Period

Sloan Vazquez did not interview Ecology Center recycling staff to verify their figures or assumptions. Furthermore, they viewed Ecology Center operations during a highly atypical period: the first week of the split cart roll-out, which was a major logistical undertaking that required intense driver training and adjustment. Now that the carts are in the field, we are refining our operations to adapt to the new service. Drive times frequently surpass 8 hours with 2 drivers, but are gradually contracting as drivers fine-tune their operations by decreasing tipper cycle times, adjusting routes, and finding solutions to challenging collection areas. Eventually, we will be able to produce cost savings as a result of cart-based service, but we are still in the midst of a major transition. Conclusions based upon an atypical period of intense transition are not a proper foundation.

Projected Savings Are Unrealistic

The basic premise the report puts forth is that the City can offer services cheaper and better than the Ecology Center. There are many places in the report where the savings look great on paper, but have little likelihood of panning out as planned. Historically, projected City savings have often not panned out. For example, we were told that it made more sense for the City to purchase the new split carts, as they would not pay sales tax or interest on the carts. Not only did they pay both sales tax and interest, but also spent hundreds of management hours with the procurement process. It would have been cheaper for the Ecology Center to purchase the carts and left overburdened City staff free for other important projects.