1% of Redondo Households Expected to Participate : Toxic-Waste Pickup to Begin

Redondo Beach is starting a collection program for household hazardous wastes--the first city-sponsored program of its kind in the South Bay, officials believe.

But only 1% of the city’s 28,000 households are expected to take advantage of it.

Under the program, residents will be encouraged to bring household hazardous wastes to a collection site set up for one day each year, beginning next spring. No date or location has been set. The county will operate a similar one-day collection site in Rolling Hills Estates next month.

The City Council voted unanimously this week to charge owners of residential property $5.40 a year per household for the program.

“(Such collections) are very expensive propositions that generally attract about 1% of the households,” City Manager Tim Casey said in an interview. He said that while he cannot estimate how many Redondo Beach households will use the program, “there’s no reason to believe that we won’t be typical.”

Household hazardous wastes include insecticides, paint thinners, disinfectants, cleaners, swimming pool chemicals and antifreeze. Casey said the primary goal of the collection is to keep such wastes out of landfills that are not equipped to handle them. It is illegal to throw away hazardous materials with ordinary trash.

The fee will raise about $153,000. The city will spend about $7,500 of the money to advertise the county collection program to be held on Oct. 8 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Palos Verdes Landfill, 26401 Crenshaw Blvd., Rolling Hills Estates.

Subhed Here

The city will spend the rest of the money to advertise its own program, pay workers at the collection site and hire a contractor to haul the waste to a landfill that will accept it.

Unlike the county, Redondo Beach plans to accept paint at its center, Casey said. When the county’s program was announced, an official said paint would not be accepted because it is “relatively innocuous” and can be tossed out with regular trash if allowed to dry.

The county’s program will be the first such collection program in the area, Casey said, and city officials hope to learn from it. He said council members believe that having just one collection day a year at a landfill several miles away might not be convenient for Redondo Beach residents, so they opted to hold another.

“We can learn from their experience, see if we can expand on their program and give people a semi-annual opportunity to clean out their garages,” Casey said. “. . .I hope people take advantage of one of the two opportunities. Deep down, I hope more people go to the county’s, for budgetary reasons.”

The $153,000 raised by the new fee will be enough if no more than 3% of the city’s households participate, Casey said. Such a turnout would be the best ever in any California city, he said.

“Obviously you want to get the maximum number of people to participate because you want them to get that stuff out of their homes, but if a lot of people participate--say 5%--then there will be serious budget consequences,” Casey said. “. . .It’s a real unpredictable program; we don’t know what to expect.”

For property owners with three or fewer units at one site--about 14,000 of the city’s households--the fee will be collected through property tax bills. Those property owners currently pay $97.20 a year per household for garbage collection.

Property owners with more than three units per site contract with private trash haulers for rubbish collection. They will be billed by those haulers for the hazardous-waste collection program, and the money will be passed on to the city.

The collection program will not accept hazardous waste from businesses, which under various laws and regulations are supposed to make their own accommodations for disposing of such waste, Casey said.