Torrance to Ask 4,000 Homes to Try New Recycling Program

Alarmed by rising landfill costs, Torrance City Council members have decided to ask 4,000 homeowners to participate in an experimental recycling program.

City staff members soon will select five groups of 800 homes for the six-month pilot program, expected to cost about $101,000.

Under the program, homeowners will be asked to place newspapers, aluminum and tin cans, and glass and plastic containers in a special 14-gallon box next to their trash barrels each week. The city will sell items to a private contractor, who will sort the various materials and resell them for recycling.

The city, which conducts its own trash collection, expects to spend about $50,000 on an extensive publicity and education campaign as part of the recycling program.

City Council members approve the program 5 to 2 Tuesday, with Councilmen Tim Mock and Dan Walker opposing the measure. Walker and Mock argued that the city should have taken a closer look at offers from two private trash haulers to conduct the pilot program for free, which would have saved about $44,000.

If the initial test seems successful, the program could be expanded to all of the city’s 30,000 homes and duplexes for about $785,000 per year. The city has not decided how it would pay for the program.