New operator sought for Recycletown at Sonoma County landfill

Recycletown has a new mayor, but it remains to be seen who’ll be shopkeeper of the quirky little trading post at the Sonoma County landfill.

Come Jan. 1, the county’s dominant waste hauler, the Ratto Group, will be responsible for overseeing the drop-off recycling center at the 170-acre landfill west of Cotati, as well as a smaller operation at the Healdsburg transfer station.

Ratto’s displacement of the Windsor-based West Coast Metals, Inc., as the operator of recycling operation is the latest change to come to the county dump since it was taken over by Arizona-based Republic Services earlier this year.

The longtime composting operation atop the landfill closed in the fall after it couldn’t work out an agreement with Republic to resolve the wastewater issues that had been plaguing it for years.

The drop-off recycling operation at the landfill includes two areas: the place where residents can toss their recyclable paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metal into large bins to be sold on the wholesale market, and the adjacent retail operation that for decades has accepted and resold donated household goods. It is widely known as Recycletown.

The Ratto Group says it wants more professional management for the operation, and has been trying to get Goodwill Industries to run it on its behalf, said Rick Downey, general manager of The Ratto Group.

But a deal won’t be worked out by the end of the year, and an interim operator, Garbage Reincarnation, which has operated Recycletown in the past, has agreed to step in for the short-term beginning Saturday, Downey said.

While it’s not clear which organization will be picked to run the site long-term, Downey said the reuse areas are an important part of helping the county meet its recycling goals and will remain open.

“I can say with 100 percent certainty that the reuse areas will still be a viable part of the Central Landfill and Healdsburg transfer station,” Downey said.

The fate of Recycletown has been on many residents’ minds since West Coast Metals began scaling back operations about a month ago in anticipation of the company’s Dec. 31 departure.

A sign went up several weeks ago telling residents that no reusable household material would be accepted after Dec. 15. That has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the amount of used furniture, broken bicycles, crusty coffee makers, old bathtubs and other material there. The sign has subsequently been taken down.

Sebastopol contractor Marc Lepp said he went to Recycletown two weeks ago and was stunned by how slim the pickings were in a yard and building normally chock-full of useful building materials and household items.

“It was totally emptied out,” Lepp said. “There was nothing there. There was no recycling going on.”

Lepp said it would be a shame to have the operation shut down because it’s normally a treasure trove of reusable material. Lepp said he often uses material from Recycletown for his building projects.

“We really need that place,” he said.

On Monday afternoon, Penngrove resident Mary Silva was already talking about Recycletown in the past tense, having been told for weeks by employees that it was shutting down, she said.

“We wanted to come one last time,” Silva said. “It’s kind of sad.”

Brian Belsardi, who has worked at Recycletown for more than a decade, is a West Coast Metals employee and will be leaving.

“I’m going to miss the people and their stories about projects they did reusing stuff,” Belsardi said. “Everyone has a Recycletown story.”

Mark Ihde, chief operating officer of Goodwill Industries Redwood Empire, said running the site could be good fit for his organization, but they need to take a closer look at it before committing.

The nonprofit organization, which operates 14 stores on the North Coast, already is suffering from higher landfill costs and low commodity prices for the donated items it can’t sell at its stores, and it needs to be sure it makes financial sense.

“I’m being very cautious about any kind of exposure because that’s not our area of expertise,” Ihde said.

Eric Koenigshofer, an attorney for The Ratto Group, is also a board member at Goodwill Industries, and he said he hopes a deal can be reached between the two entities.

Judy Smith, CEO of Garbage Reincarnation, said she’s willing to come back to run Recycletown, but not if she’s just a placeholder until Goodwill can “get its act together.”

“If that’s what they want, they can go find another clown,” Smith said.

But late Monday she said she’d been reassured by Downey that no agreements have been reached with Goodwill. “So, we’ll be up there Saturday,” Smith said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.