Santa Maria Approves New Recycling Center for CRV Beverage Containers
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - A proposed new recycling center in Santa Maria for empty California Redemption Value (CRV) beverage containers has received approval to open.
On Wednesday, the Santa Maria Planning Commission approved a Conditional Use Permit for the new facility that is planned to open on a 0.39-acre site located at 1128 West Church Street, near the busy intersection of West Main Street and North Blosser Road.
AGS Recycling Inc, which operates facilities in nearby Orcutt, Guadalupe, rural Arroyo Grande and Morro Bay applied for the permit and will soon transform the site from an auto repair shop to a recycling center.
"It's great spot for all the customers," said Edgar Arroyo, AGS Recycling Inc. owner. "It's a convenient, fast and drivable spot. It's a big spot and safe for all cars and customers."
Unlike some of the other local AGS sites that are positioned in parking lots utilizing moveable storage containers, the new Santa Maria center will be located inside a permanent structure.
The already existing building will used for the collection, purchase, weighing, and temporary storage of recyclable materials (aluminum cans, glass bottles, and plastic bottles).
With the approval in now in hand, AGS Recycling said it is planning to open within a three-month timeframe.
When it does open for business, it re-establish a buy-back place for people to recycle CVR bottles and cans in Santa Maria for the first time since rePlant closed all of its nearly 300 locations across the state in 2019.
Earlier in the year, as it application was being reviewed the city's planning department, AGS Recycling was told it needed to find solutions for a number of concerns that were brought up during the review process.
Some of the concerns expressed about the business included a potentinal increase of unsheltered people in the general area, cleanliness and odor, pests and rodents, abandoned shopping carts, alley traffic, alley fires, and an overall increase in crime.
The solutions AGS presented to city planning leaders included, power washing the site twice a week, hiring an exterminating company to perform monthly services, closing public access to the alley from the project site, contracting with a security company to provide surveillance cameras with sensors, installing motion-activated exterior lighting, posting “No Trespassing” signs, reporting abandoned shopping carts to the City, keeping the dumpster and outdoor storage container locked when not in operation and maintaining the site landscaping to eliminate any hiding places.
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