County Expanding Curbside Recycling

Residents in Laguna Hills and Aliso Viejo soon will join a county curbside recycling program that separates glass, aluminum, plastic and newspapers from other trash.

It is the first such program in the unincorporated area of South County and will involve 2,136 households. It is scheduled to begin Aug. 23.

County supervisors on Wednesday approved the final agreement between the county’s waste management program and Solag Disposal Services Inc., which will provide residents with recycling containers. The bins will be picked up once a week by Solag trucks on regular trash collection days.

Resident will be charged $2.48 a month for the service whether or not they participate in the recycling program. Revenue from the sale of recyclable materials will be put in an interest-bearing account and used to offset program costs and pay debts and capital expenditures should the program be terminated.

Solag Disposal, of San Juan Capistrano, already has the trash-collection contract for Laguna Hills and Aliso Viejo. The fee increase for the recycling program will be included in the regular monthly trash bill.

Jan Goss, manager of the county’s recycling program, said money from the sale of materials may eventually reduce costs. But she noted that the sale of the materials will not cover the entire cost--or even 50% of it.

Nonetheless, “I think people are ready to recycle,” Goss said. “They have a great interest in the environment and want to help in any way they can.”