Tower to Fill a Tall Order in Recycling

The Union Bank tower in Oxnard, Ventura County’s tallest building, is to become the first large business complex in the county to recycle tons of office paper each month, county officials said Thursday.

The building’s 65 tenants and 600 employees have been asked by the building’s owner, Martin V. Smith & Associates, to begin Monday to deposit white and colored paper in separate bins for the recycling project.

The bank building--whose tenants include professional offices and insurance, title and finance companies--joins the county, the city of Ventura and a few individual businesses operating large-scale recycling programs in the county.

More than six tons of paper per month will be diverted from area landfills as a result of the program at the Union Bank building, county officials say.

The building’s owner and one of its tenants, Waste Management of North America, are paying for brochures explaining the project to tenants and for bins to store the paper. A recycling firm, Golden State Fiber of Canoga Park, will pick up the full bins and pay a small fee for the paper, county officials said.

Martin V. Smith & Associates, the building owner, agreed to participate after the program was proposed by Ventura County’s Solid Waste Department staff, said Wendy Eales, a Smith & Associates spokeswoman.

“It would almost be embarrassing not to do it,” Eales said. “This is the perfect opportunity to recycle.”

A few companies, such as Patagonia in Ventura, operate individual recycling programs, said Kathy Culbertson, assistant to Victoria Hand, recycling coordinator for the county. The county is urging cities and private enterprises to participate in the program.

The county has operated a paper-recycling program in the administration building at its Ventura government center since December. That program will be expanded next month to include the Hall of Justice and the County Jail, Culbertson said.

Ventura, which started a recycling program last fall at City Hall, has recycled more than three tons of paper that would otherwise have gone to the Santa Clara Landfill, which is nearing capacity, city officials said.

Employee participation has gone up steadily since the beginning of the city program, said Deborah Millais, administrative assistant to the Ventura city manager.

“From poking around in the dumpsters, I find that virtually all our paper is now going to the recycler and not landfills,” Millais said.

Hand and Culbertson said they are helping the city of Camarillo develop a recycling program.

Tenants contacted at the Union Bank building on Thursday endorsed the voluntary program, explained to employees in a series of meetings.

“A lot of us recognize the need to protect our environment,” said Dawn Dyer, an investment real estate and securities representative for Thomas Associates on the 12th floor. “If it’s as simple as putting paper into a bin to protect our forests, I will participate and I sure hope most people will.”

Lulu Bravo, a legal secretary in the law firm of Halpern & Zaehringer, started an office recycling program a month ago when she heard of the upcoming plans.

“I’m saving this for Monday,” she said, pointing to a bin of discarded paper from the office machines. “I want to have land for playgrounds for kids, not dumps for trash.”