California Waste Solutions Out at Oakland Army Base

A plan to move a recycling plant owned by California Waste Solutions to the former Oakland Army Base is seemingly dead in the water.

The city of Oakland terminated a lease and development agreement with the waste company, The Oaklandside reported, citing confirmation from city spokesperson Sean Maher. The plan would’ve moved the recycling facility out of a West Oakland residential neighborhood and onto the decommissioned army base near the Bay Bridge.

Oakland city officials released a report about the air quality of the army base last week and noted that the deal was off, according to The Oakland Observer. California Waste Solutions, the city’s curbside recycling contractor, was in talks with Oakland leaders since the late 2000s to build a new waste sorting and recycling facility on a plot of land at the former base known as the North Gateway parcel.

If completed, it would have moved its current facility out of the Lower Bottoms neighborhood, where studies have found higher levels of asthma and other respiratory diseases among residents, according to The East Bay Times.

The deal cancellation comes after California Waste CEO David Duong asked former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and the City Council to grant a nine-month extension to secure funding in February 2024. Duong asked the city for another extension in March 2025, though the company reportedly failed to pay the necessary $425,000 to grant an extension.

David Duong, his son Andy and former Mayor Sheng Thao and her partner Andre Jones were charged in an alleged bribery scheme earlier this year. Federal prosecutors claim Thao and Jones took cash payments in exchange for promises to help the Duongs, which included securing the land deal at the army base.

Oakland officials terminated the agreement even though California Waste Solutions “offered to immediately pay the full purchase price of more than $8 million” for the site, calling the offer “a demonstration of our commitment to move forward with the recycling facility project,” according to The Oaklandside.

But California Waste Solutions offered to buy the property outright “for under the market price” of $8 million, a spokesperson for the City Administrator told The Oaklandside. “The City Council did not bring any action to accept this offer,” the spokesperson said.

The Port of Oakland and metal recycling company CASS have expressed interest in the site, the spokesperson said. CASS was negotiating a development agreement with the city to build at the army base as of last year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

— Chris Malone Méndez