Picking Up on ‘the Coming Thing’ : Del Mar, Encinitas Back Recycling Programs

Del Mar moved toward becoming the third North County city to initiate a plan for residential waste recycling Monday night as City Council members directed the city manager to draw up a plan for curbside pickup of recyclable glass, aluminum and newspapers.

Also on Monday night, Encinitas City Council members held a workshop at which they discussed plans to institute a pilot recycling program for 5,000 residences.

“It’s philosophical and environmental,” Encinitas City Manager Warren Shafer said of the move toward recycling. “The amount of landfill space is finite. The trash we’re generating is not.”

Del Mar City Councilman Lewis Hopkins proposed the recycling program, calling it “the coming thing.”

About 80% of the cost of the service would be paid for through the resale of the trash by the recycling firm, Solana Recyclers. An additional fee of 65 cents would be added to each customer’s regular $12-a-month trash bill in Del Mar, according to the firm. In Encinitas, tentative plans call for a fee of about 50 cents to be added to the regular monthly trash service fee of $7.70.

Commercial activities such as restaurants and bars, which throw away large quantities of glass, also could become part of the program, which initially will serve 1,445 single-family residences. The city also would encourage residents of multifamily units, which contract separately for waste disposal, to become involved in a recycling program.

Encinitas Mayor Marjorie Gaines noted that it was simply not efficient to “put a lot of money into buying the packaging of the things we use in our homes and then put it in a hole in the ground.” If the pilot project in Encinitas works, eventually the number of homes served there could expand to 15,000.

Solana Recyclers Inc., the company that Del Mar and Encinitas are dealing with, was founded almost as a hobby 3 1/2 years ago. It now operates two trucks, employs a manager and a pickup crew of two, and serves 4,300 residences in Solana Beach and parts of Encinitas.

Oceanside is the other North County city that is providing for curbside pickup of recyclables. However, the Oceanside program, with a 10% to 14% participation rate, is not considered as successful as the one in Solana Beach.

The key to getting large numbers of residents to participate in the recycling program lies in publicity and education, according to Brooke Nash, co-founder and manager of Solana Recyclers. Nash said she gets about 25% participation from the 4,300 households served.

Before beginning service in Solana Beach in 1984, Nash sent an army of volunteers to spread the gospel of recycling door to door. “Rather than leave a flyer on the doorknob, we try and have personal contact . . . so we can answer questions,” Nash said. “In fact, it worked very well.”

Beginning with one neighborhood of 400, the areas served were slowly but steadily expanded. Another key to successful civic recycling is readily identifiable containers for the glass and aluminum cans. Newspapers must be bundled or placed in sacks, Nash said.

Estimates for the Del Mar and Encinitas plans call for the cities to provide users with five-gallon buckets, which cost $1.35. Other fees will be shared between the company and the city. The City Council is scheduled to act on the plan in October.