Trash Your Neighbors Will Envy

Old habits are hard to break. Starting new ones can be even tougher, particularly when others keep telling us it’s a good idea.

Recycling is one of those new habits people are talking about. But I’ll wager that some of you, the minute you spotted the word recycling, decided to turn this page.

If that’s you, wait! Like it or not, sorting your trash for recyclables is fast becoming a way of life. Six county cities offer some form of curbside collection for glass bottles and jars, aluminum and tin cans, plastic soda and milk containers, newspapers and even cardboard. Statewide, about 140 municipalities have curbside programs, triple the number of just two years ago.

Most cities have adopted recycling strategies because it’s the law. By 1992, all California cities are required to establish recycling programs to reduce by half the amount of solid waste being dumped at landfills before the end of the decade.

So get ready to separate your garbage, because recycling is coming to your neighborhood--soon. And when it does, you’d best get in the habit, or run the risk of getting the evil eye from your neighbor. I know. I was the target of such a stare.

About a month ago my Los Angeles County town began curbside recycling. Every resident was given a bright orange plastic basket for recyclables--bottles, cans and newspapers. Items have to be bagged separately, then put on the curb in the basket on trash day.

The flyer that arrived with the plastic basket said the program is voluntary. But tell that to my neighbor, who dutifully hauled out his load of recyclables on the first day of the program. I, of course, forgot to save my beer cans, applesauce jars and newspapers that first week.

Now, I am an ardent believer in recycling. Southern California generates more waste than any region in the nation. And nowhere is the trash pile bigger than in Orange County, where 4.4 million tons of solid waste is produced every year. That’s roughly 2.1 tons for every man, woman and child--the highest per-capita ratio of any county in the nation.

These staggering numbers worry me--as they should anyone planning to live in the Los Angeles basin in the next century, when the shortage of landfills and the glut of trash could create a noxious mess. Recycling makes sense, and to that end I have tried to remember in recent years to stack my newspapers in the garage and take them periodically across town to a local recycler. Same with bottles and cans.

But work, kids and weekends often sidetracked my efforts. My spirit was willing, but the results were erratic.

That’s why I welcomed the city’s curbside program. How easy can it get? Valet service for recyclables. Trouble is, when the program started, I wasn’t in the habit of saving bottles and cans and old papers. So when the day arrived to haul the stuff out in the bright orange basket, I was caught without a single contribution by my neighbor, who wisecracked from his driveway: “Don’t you care about the environment?”

For a reporter who thrives on covering debates over air quality or ocean pollution, it was an embarrassing exchange.

Trust me, it has not happened since.

Fortunately, thousands of Orange County people have joined the recycling ranks. An estimated 175,000 to 200,000 county residents voluntarily participate in curbside collection programs in Anaheim, Brea, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Orange and Irvine. Half a dozen more cities may start such recycling by the end of summer.

Nowhere has recycling been as successful as in Irvine, the first city in the county to adopt a program, in September, 1987. More than 71% of the 26,000 residences eligible for the program are participating, officials say. In some pockets of the city, participation is nearly 90%.

In the first two years of the program, 13,196 tons of old cans, glass bottles, plastic soda containers and newsprint were collected. City officials say enough newspapers were recycled to save about 192,000 35-foot trees.

“Everyone thought we were nuts, just nuts when we started this program,” said Maryanne Hetherington-Wysard, an Irvine public works official. “Now others are following. A lot of people are getting into the habit.”

Including one Times reporter.