3 Cities Join Together to Reduce Trash

Three eastern Ventura County cities, grappling with a state-mandated deadline to cut down their garbage by 25% in the next five years, have united to tackle their trash problems.

Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks want the Ventura County Solid Waste Management Department to join in a $500,000 program designed to reduce the massive amounts of garbage dumped each year into landfills.

To finance the effort, the cities are asking that dumping fees at the Simi Valley Landfill be increased to pay for a trash generation study, recycling and public education programs. The suggested fee increase is $1.40 per ton imposed over the next year, an official said.

It is the first time that cities in the county have banded together to plan recycling efforts that will cross their boundaries.

“We’re going to bury ourselves in waste if we don’t do anything about it,” said Moorpark Mayor Paul Lawrason, a member of the task force planning the effort. “This is a method of getting the work done on a shared basis.”

Because Moorpark is too small to assign a full-time staff person to carry out an independent recycling program, it will benefit from a joint planning effort, Lawrason said.

Moorpark council members tentatively agreed to back the plan Wednesday night and are expected to formally approve an agreement with the county to share waste management efforts when the council meets May 16.

The Simi Valley City Council is scheduled to consider the same plan next Monday. The Thousand Oaks City Council will take up the matter at its May 15 meeting.

Under the state law, cities are required to conduct a study of the waste generated by commercial and industrial users and residential households.

Reduction programs, achieved primarily through recycling, must be operating by July 1, 1991. But plans for all cities must be on file with the county by the end of the year.

In addition to the proposed joint operation, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark are considering independent recycling programs that would meet the state’s order to reduce garbage by 25% by 1995 and by 50% by 2000.

In Thousand Oaks, however, officials said a link with other cities would be less costly.

“If we do it individually, it would be a great deal more expensive than doing it as a combined effort,” Thousand Oaks Mayor Alex Fiore said.

One long-term benefit of a joint planning effort that has been discussed would be establishment of a recycling facility in the east county, Fiore said.

Simi Valley Councilwoman Ann Rock agreed that joint planning of a recycling center may be the next step after developing a study of the area’s waste disposal patterns.

“We’re going to see much more involvement in a materials recovery facility with the three cities than we’re seeing now,” Rock said. “It won’t have to be a massive effort.”

With a combined population of about 234,000, the three cities will be able to share staff and ideas for disposal and recycling, even if they have existing programs.

Simi Valley is the only city in the eastern part of the county with an existing recycling program. About half of the city’s 27,000 households recycle paper, aluminum and bottles in a curbside recycling program that costs about $100,000 a year to operate, officials said. The program is expected to be expanded throughout Simi Valley by next year.

But pressure is also building locally to reduce garbage before it gets to the landfill. While the three cities all dump their garbage into the Simi Valley Landfill, space at the county-operated dump is quickly vanishing.

The county has begun to look at the ways of reducing the waste generated by all residents as a means of extending the life of the county landfills, said Jocelyn Reed, deputy director of environmental services in Simi Valley.

About 325,000 tons of garbage are dumped at the landfill off Madera Road each year. Reed said the county’s landfill capacity will be exhausted in about eight years.