Thousand Oaks Ready to Approve Recycling : Ecology: The City Council is expected to approve a voluntary pilot program beginning in May.

Thousand Oaks is expected to join a growing number of Ventura County communities by implementing a curbside recycling program to reduce the mountain of garbage that flows daily into local landfills.

“We have to do something,” said Donald H. Nelson, the city’s director of utilities. “We cannot continue our wasteful ways of not reusing and recycling our resources.”

Meanwhile, Simi Valley is preparing to expand its curbside recycling program on April 9 to serve more than 12,000 households. About 1,000 households in neighborhoods scattered throughout the city are served by a pilot program, said Catherine Unseth, program director and a consultant to the city’s Environmental Service Department.

“I think solid waste management will be the issue for the 1990s, especially now that we’re running out of landfill space,” Unseth said.

Nelson said the Thousand Oaks City Council is expected to approve a proposal on April 17 to initiate a voluntary glass, paper and aluminum recycling program for about 3,000 households in May. The program eventually will be expanded to include about 30,000 residences, he said.

Councilman Frank Schillo suggested in September that Thousand Oaks start a program to pick up recyclable waste, and a citizens committee was formed to find out what residents think about the issue. The committee, which has met several times, is scheduled to hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall to discuss the proposal before it goes to the council.

“We need to do something because the Simi Valley landfill has been staring us in the face,” Schillo said.

Officials predict that the landfill, which serves the eastern portion of the county, will be full in eight years. But, Nelson said, the recycling program can “lengthen the life” of the landfill. The city, which normally dumps about 55,000 tons of residential garbage into the landfill each year, can recycle about 14,000 tons annually through the program, he said.

In addition to curbside recycling, the city is considering building a recycling facility and devising a plan to turn tree trimmings and other yard waste into compost, Nelson said.

Although a recently passed state law gives communities until July, 1991, to initiate recycling projects, Ventura became the first city in the county to implement a program on Oct. 9.

“We felt it was something we had to do now for our environment,” said Jon Sagen, a planner with Ventura’s recycling program.

Sagen said the city had recycled about 18 tons of garbage by the end of February. About 5,000 households have been participating in the program, he said.

Meanwhile, Camarillo, Oxnard and Ojai are considering instituting recycling projects.

In January, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley signed one of the largest mandatory household garbage recycling programs in the nation, starting a $190-million effort to cut in half the amount of waste the city puts in its landfills.

Although Los Angeles’ household recycling program will be mandatory as it is phased in over the next two years, the programs in Ventura County are voluntary, officials said.

“People ask, why not make this mandatory,” Unseth said. “Well, I can give you a collection can, but I can’t make you use it. If you don’t understand the value of it, how can I get you to use it?”

But Simi Valley’s response to the program has been good, and Unseth said Thousand Oaks is expecting similar participation.

Thousand Oaks sent survey cards to residents earlier this month seeking their sentiment on the city’s recycling proposal. He said about 80% of the 1,105 residents who have responded said they would support such a program.

“The response has been amazing,” Nelson said.