Trash Recycling Program to Begin in September in 10 Anaheim Areas

Residents in 10 Anaheim neighborhoods will begin sorting their trash in September in a curb-side recycling program that officials plan to expand citywide within a year, according to an agreement approved Tuesday by the City Council.

Anaheim is one of three Orange County cities scheduled to begin recycling programs this fall. Brea and Laguna Beach will follow in November, joining the city of Irvine, which began its program in 1987.

In Anaheim and Brea, households participating in the programs will be given two 110-gallon containers, one green and the other black. The containers were devised by officials of the cities and Anaheim Disposal Inc., which serves both cities..

Recyclable materials, including newspapers, aluminum cans and glass bottles, are to be placed in the green containers, which will be picked up every other week. The remaining trash will go into the black containers for weekly pickups.

Other recycling programs, such as the one in Irvine and the future one in Laguna Beach, require residents to separate trash into three containers--one each for newspapers, cans and bottles and regular garbage.

Anaheim officials hope that the two-can approach will encourage more participation in recycling, because most of the sorting will be done by Anaheim Disposal workers.

“The easier we can make it, the better,” said Carolyn Griebe, a city spokeswoman.

Anaheim residents participating in the program will receive their new containers in August. Containers for Brea and Laguna Beach residents will be distributed in October.

In Anaheim, the pilot program includes 11,000 homes in neighborhoods from the posh Anaheim Hills in the east to the area bordering Buena Park on the west. The project was designed to reach a cross-section of neighborhoods, according to an Anaheim Disposal spokesman.

After a year, the Anaheim City Council will evaluate the program and decide how to expand it to include the entire city. Anaheim’s pilot program will cost the city $2.7 million, funded in part by a garbage-fee increase approved by the City Council in March. The monthly fee was increased from $6.11 to $7.03, 27 cents of which went toward the recycling program, Griebe said. Most of the increase was to cover higher county landfill costs, she added.

In Laguna Beach, the recycling program will cost residents 48 cents more a month, said Terry Brandt, director of municipal services. In Irvine, the cost is 60 cents more a month. Figures were not available for Brea.

The money from the sale of the recyclable items in Anaheim will be split between the disposal company and the city’s general fund, Griebe said.

So far, officials in all the cities say the proposed programs have been well received by residents.

Laguna Beach’s Brandt said, “We’ve gotten a lot of positive comments.”