In the City of San Diego, the Department of Environmental Services, wants to
stop the pilot curbside recycling program (1/3 of the city or 80,000 single
family residents). They want to build equity to borrow money to buy a
County landfill. This landfill now taking nearly 50% less waste because of
waste reduction and recycling programs in that waste shed. One large City,
El Cajon is now tranfering wasted resources past the local landfill
(actually) up the crowded and polluted freeway 50 miles north. The city
hauler, a WMX affilliate has a low tipping fee deal with Orange County who
has over fifty years of capacity for their own use. Orange County is now
selling capacity to raise funds and thus using trash disposal as a profit
center for their nearly bankrupt County government.
The reaction to the city by recyclers and local haulers alike was:
* INSERT YOUR IDEA HERE!
Initiate a source separation requirement in the solid waste ordinance that
requires the generator to separate discards into designated reyclables,
compostibles and residuals.
>>
Most of the cities in San Diego COUNTY have these ordinances and are nearly
at fifty percent on their diversion goals. When the MRF in San Marcos was
running there was an additional 16% of designated recyclables recovered.
Now that new composting companies have located and been permitted;
foodwaste and misc. paper could be added as a compostible. If ALL systems
were allowed to run there would be an overall reduction of wasted
resources going to landfill of 75%, today.
Rick