ORANGE : City Staff to Recycle Used Office Paper

The city will soon launch a recycling program to help all municipal employees be environmentally responsible without having to leave their desks.

The program, which the City Council approved and which will begin operating next month, will provide each employee with a desktop recycling bin. All city government departments--including the libraries and the police and fire departments--will participate.

Although the waste management plan began in January as a pilot program, officials hope that its full implementation will become a model for companies to follow. A training videotape will be made available to any company interested in starting a recycling plan, said Philip Pierce, street division manager for the Department of Public Works.

Throughout City Hall, each desk will be equipped with a 10-inch high bin divided into two sections, one for white paper and one for colored and mixed paper products. Employees are being asked to dump their memos, typing and computer paper into the box. When it fills up, they are supposed to transfer the waste to a larger bin in their office.

“We’ve had nothing but a great response from management level all the way through the rank and file,” Pierce said. “If you make it easy, they’ll do it.”

Three departments participating in the pilot program recycled nearly 6,500 pounds of mixed paper in six months, and sold it to Paper Scrap Specialists for $300, Pierce said. The city is currently negotiating with vendors to sell its waste under the new program. More than 90% of office paper is considered high quality and recyclable, and the program should become self-supporting, Pierce said.

The program was first discussed three years ago, long before last year’s state mandate requiring public agencies to reduce their solid waste 25% by 1995, Pierce said.

It comes at a time when other cities are also exploring recycling plans. Irvine launched a program earlier this year, and Costa Mesa has implemented an trial program at City Hall. Pierce predicted that other cities will soon follow.

“I think people get surprised when they find out how much trash is generated,” he said. “I think we had the decade of the hippies and the decade of this-and-that, and the ‘90s should be the decade of solid waste. We really have to do something about it.”