The city of Berkeley’s Public Works Department’s Zero Waste Division held workshops March 14 and 15 to review design concepts for its new transfer station — the city’s hub for “garbage, recyclables, compost and other materials” on Second and Gilman streets, as first reported by Berkeleyside.
The Zero Waste Division’s new conceptual plans, to be reviewed by the Berkeley City Council in June 2019, will include designs to facilitate dropping off materials that are not collected at the curbside, propose an environmental center and allow the facility to be able to take in other materials.
The current facility, which has a building life of 30 to 35 years, is an older facility that needs replacement, according to Greg Apa, the solid waste and recycling manager for the Zero Waste Division. The redesign would include an integrated facility that would allow for more materials to be recovered.
“We’re reusing the space. (The) current facility is at its end’s life,” Apa said.
According to a 2018 report from the city manager’s office, the city manager was authorized by City Council to award a contract to Zero Waste Collaborative, Inc. in July 2018. This contract allows the collaborative to develop the conceptual designs and conduct a feasibility study.
The collaborative was reviewed under a scoring sheet and evaluation panel that interviewed and selected candidates based on the ability to provide a time frame and the best qualifications, according to Apa.
The Zero Waste Division, an enterprise-funded operation — which operates on fees for its services such as recycling, food waste collection and handling processing marketing — worked with an initial budget of $500,000, according to Apa.
The next review will be held at the end of April with a reconceptualization based on public input, according to Apa. The proposal will then enter a review by city officials to check for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. The CEQA process will take two to three years, at which point the developed engineered plans could be underway, according to Apa.
“After the consulted, solicited ideas (were) converted into concepts, basically, (it) fit the pieces on the acreage here and traffic layouts to take more public input,” Apa said.
