Milpitas is currently in the process of negotiating with three contenders for the future of the city’s waste collection program. As part of its information gathering effort, Milpitas City Council convened a special meeting on Aug. 24 at the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer Station in Sunnyvale, according to Milpitas City Manager Tom Williams.
That day, around 30 individuals — including the full city council, city staffers and others — gathered for the afternoon tour, Williams said. The city manager added that he’s working to arrange similar tours for the council at facilities used by the other two contenders too — GreenWaste Recovery and Republic Services.
Garden City, one of the waste companies angling for the city’s garbage collection contract, sends all of the waste it collects to the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery station. According to Sunnyvale’s website, the so-called SMaRT Station serves the cities of Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale and is located on the site of a closed landfill at 301 Carl Road off state Route 237 in Sunnvyale. The station is operated by Bay Counties Waste Services, the website states.
“The facility is operated by three municipalities and the equipment and process is set up for separating recycled materials,” Williams said.
He added the station meets the state’s current recycling requirements as well as future requirements to separate and recycle all organic material such as food. Williams noted that split carts — where items are disposed of by type of waste — are the future of waste disposal. At the Sunnyvale facility, zero waste is the goal, so everything disposed there is repurposed for something else. That means stuff like food waste may be turned into animal food.
“And so we are doing our due diligence to make sure our council and staff get educated and get an understanding” of how the different facilities work, Williams said.
In order for the council to be in compliance with public meeting ordinances, Williams said a special meeting had to be announced and opened to the community at the Sunnyvale facility. He said that he hopes to start the next city council meeting on Sept. 6 at an earlier time — likely ahead of its typical 6 p.m. call to order — so the panel as well as individuals from the public can head over to Newby Island Landfill to get a tour there. Afterward, the council can then return to city hall for the remainder of its meeting and address other public business.
Despite a referendum measure set to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot challenging city council’s prior decision to send the city’s waste to a South San Jose landfill instead of Newby Island, the city decided in June to continue negotiations with four garbage collection agencies including Republic Services of Santa Clara County, which operates the Newby dump on the Milpitas-San Jose border and is funding the referendum.
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