California considers new recycling law

By JENNIFER BOWLES and DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise
Friday, July 13, 2007

Lynn Nickens braved the sweltering heat to drop off her soda, water and juice bottles at an outdoor recycling center in Redlands, Calif.

She unloaded them from the back seat where they had spilled out of their plastic bags and then popped the trunk of her sedan to retrieve more bottles that she had stacked up in a kitchen closet dedicated to storing recyclables for her monthly runs.

"They've been in my car for about four days or so," said Nickens, a psychotherapist. "I just didn't have time to stop."

Like Nickens, many apartment dwellers who want to recoup their bottle deposits or help the environment have to make a real effort. They have to store them in their homes and then haul them to one, two, maybe even three different places.

Robert Dennis, for instance, takes his bottles and cans to the same recycling center by a grocery store as Nickens does and often cashes his receipt while shopping. But he has to lug other plastic materials not accepted there to a place near his job in Colton, Calif.

If a bill is finalized in the California Legislature next week and signed by the governor, Nickens and Dennis won't have to make their trips. The bill would require multifamily complexes such as apartment buildings and condominiums with five units or more to offer on-site recycling bins starting next summer.

The bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, said many apartment dwellers would recycle if they had the opportunity.

"If you make it convenient for them, they'll do it," Levine said.

Levine said his bill would also save cities and counties money by extending the lives of landfills through reducing the volume of trash.

A more aggressive recycling program aimed at apartment buildings could help cities meet a state requirement that began in 2000 to divert at least 50 percent of their trash from landfills.

In 2000, about 13 percent of the housing units in Riverside and San Bernardino counties -- more than 150,000 -- were in apartment or condominium complexes of five units or more, according to the U.S. census.

Initially, cities targeted single-family homes for recycling because it was easier to provide the smaller, extra bins. Gradually, they have been adding multifamily complexes but with less success because of the high turnover of residents and lack of space for an extra bin, Inland city officials said.

Levine's bill passed both houses but the Assembly must approve Senate changes in the bill before it goes to Gov. Schwarzenegger's desk. That is expected to happen Monday.

Schwarzenegger has not yet decided whether he will sign the bill, said gubernatorial spokeswoman Gena Grebitus.

Participation among apartment complexes in cities that offer recycling bins has been spotty.

Although Redlands leases its recycling bins to apartment buildings for $9 a month, only about 50 percent of the major complexes representing some 2,100 units have taken the city up on the low-cost offer. But those that do have reaped the rewards, said Gary Van Dorst, Redlands' solid waste manager.

In seven other California cities served by Waste Management's refuse collection, an average 30 percent to 35 percent of the apartments participate in a recycling program, said Lily Quiroa, the company's regional community relations manager.

Officials cited contamination as a leading problem with recycling at apartment complexes. Even if most tenants in a building carefully separate their recyclables from trash, one person who either doesn't understand recycling or doesn't care can ruin the entire bin, said Barbara Smith, of Temecula's community services department.

Steve Glynn, Waste Management's recycling compliance manager, said dirty diapers and other liquids are among the items that can contaminate recyclables beyond use.

Palm Desert, Calif. will soon begin contacting all apartment-building managers and encouraging them to offer recycling, said Frankie Riddle, the city's director of special programs. The city also plans to create recycling-education fliers and make tenant presentations at buildings that sign up, Riddle said.

Such education is crucial to making apartment-building recycling work, said Brett Stev, who heads Seattle Public Utilities' recycling education program. Many tenants arrive from other cities or countries and may know little about recycling, he said.

"If you just put a bin out there and don't provide education, it's not going to do a lot of good," he said.

Seattle has one of the country's most aggressive recycling programs. In 2004, the city approved a law requiring residents to separate recyclables from garbage. Homeowners who repeatedly violate the law face a cutoff of trash pickup; apartment-building owners can be fined.

Despite the law, nearly 75 percent of recyclable material from Seattle apartment buildings in 2005 ended up in landfills, compared to less than 40 percent of recyclables from single-family homes, Stev said. Recycling rates have probably increased since then, as residents and building owners tried to avoid penalties that went into effect in 2006, he said.

Nationwide, apartment-building units recycle about 10 percent less of their waste on average than single-family residences, according to a 2001 study issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In California, more than a quarter of the 12.7 million tons of household waste in 2003 that ended up in landfills came from multifamily complexes, according to the state Integrated Waste Management Board. The large majority of residential waste is recyclable, said board spokesman Lanny Clavecilla.

Reach Jennifer Bowles at jbowles(at)PE.com.