E.J. Harrison

E. J. Harrison Franchise Agreement

Since 1993, the Public Works Department has been responsible for administering the City’s solid waste franchise agreement with Harrison Industries for the collection of refuse, recyclable materials, and green waste materials from Ventura residents and businesses. The agreement was revised in 2000 and will extend until 2010. E.J. Harrison’s compliance with the contract is reviewed annually. If Harrison meets all the requirements of the contract, they are eligible for a small rate increase (usually 1% to 3%) based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The new franchise agreement has a number of additional requirements not contained in the previous agreement. Two significant changes are:

Commercial Unicycling Program - Unicycling allows most businesses to use one container for their trash and recyclables. The commingled materials are taken to Gold Coast recycling where most of the recyclable materials are picked out of the waste stream and recycled. This is a great benefit for businesses with room for only one refuse container.

Diversion Requirements – The new agreement requires E.J. Harrison to divert a significant amount of the waste they collect. The following diversion goals are required by the agreement:
Divert 45% of all residential waste
Divert 18% of all commercial waste
Divert 25% of all waste collected from roll-off bins

Clean Air Plan – Diversion Requirements also extend into business operations. In addition to the installation of a liquid natural gas (LNG) fueling station, a minimum of 10 E.J. Harrison trash trucks will operate on cleaner burning LNG.

Gold Coast Recycling

The City’s agreement with Gold Coast Recycling was established in 1997. The agreement continues until 2007. Gold Coast is a large facility called a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) or Transfer Station. The facility accepts large amounts of trash and recyclable materials. Trash is separated out and trucked off to Toland Landfill for disposal. Recyclable materials are sent through a state-of-the-art sorting system where they are separated into different commodities (e.g. paper, cardboard, aluminum, etc.) and shipped off for sale in domestic and foreign markets.