Without a new home, Cambria recycling center could close
Time is running out for Cambria’s All-American Recycling Center on Tamsen Drive, which needs to find a new place to operate, or it could go out of business. According to state recycling law, that could create a whole new set of issues.
Owner-operators Rudy and Michelle Rodriguez plan to move to Virginia by the end of the year, he said on May 11, because they want to be closer to family that includes 6-month-old twin granddaughters.
The center’s move was triggered by a neighbor’s complaint about noise, Michelle Rodriguez said the same day. A San Luis Obispo County investigation showed the center wasn’t noisy, she said, but the uncovered another problem: The center is within 500 feet of a property line, something that had gone unnoticed for years, through several sets of operators.
Two brothers want to buy the business, Rudy Rodriguez said, but if the current owners can’t keep it where it is or find another location, that sale could fall through and the North Coast could find itself without the center again. “It needs to be convenient but out of sight,” he said.
Claudia Harmon Worthen of the Beautify Cambria group said each alternate possible location seems to have its own glitch, such as being too close to a creek or a residence, or having rent that’s too high for a business that often operates on a shoestring profit margin.
Members of the group have been “brainstorming” with the Rodriguezes, she said, because Beautify Cambria is all about making sure the town is as lovely as it can be, and recyclables left by the side of the road are unsightly.
Michelle Rodriguez said the search for a new location has been frustrating.
“The Rodeo Grounds area is under a conservation easement,” the back corner of the old grammar school is set aside for pickleball courts, and the “Tin Village” area has complications, too.
The county would like the center to include a composting facility, but that makes it even more difficult to locate, her husband said. “I’m not going to buy any more heavy equipment if we don’t have a place to move it to.”
The Rodriguez leases at the Cambria Village Square property expire in mid-2016, so they also plan to sell their video and laundry businesses. But they don’t want to leave the community without a recycling center, which by state law must be within a certain distance of Cookie Crock Market to receive a monthly subsidy — so they’re putting in plenty of phone, computer and community meeting time to find a solution.
The market sells a lot of items for which consumers pay California Redemption Value (CRV) deposits, as do other stores, such as Soto’s Market. According to Cookie Crock’s owner Del Clegg, each site selling CRV products is supposed to post a public notice about the closest recycling center.
Clegg said a portion of each CRV deposit is returned to recycling consumers when they redeem aluminum soda or beer cans, glass and plastic soda bottles or other CRV items, plus a bit more toward the value of the aluminum or plastic. The state gives the recycling center another portion of the CRV deposit and material value, although during the recession, he said, the state withheld those payments.
“That’s when a lot of recycling centers went out of business.”
He said one or more nonprofit organizations might want to consider providing a site for and operating the recycling center.
Cambria’s recycling center gives the recycling customer chits to be redeemed at Cookie Crock, he said, but most other centers issue cash. The bulk of the Cambria’s center’s current recycling business comes from motels and other lodgings, Worthen said.
A few years ago, when the Cambria center was closed, North Coast residents had to drive to Morro Bay to redeem their CRV items. They weren’t happy about it, and neither was the state.
For years, the center was near Cookie Crock’s delivery bay, and before that, it was in the far corner of the parking lot. When it was moved to near the top of Tamsen Drive, it often was a messy site. But since the Rodriguezes took over, “that place has been immaculate,” Worthen said. “We want it to stay that way.”
How to help
Anyone who has ideas for a new location for the recycling center can call Rudy Rodriguez at 927-5162.
This story was originally published May 20, 2015 at 1:09 PM with the headline "Without a new home, Cambria recycling center could close."