LA HABRA : Residents Get Word on Recycling Effort

Curbside recycling will begin early next month, when 22,000 bright orange containers are distributed throughout the city, two to a home.

A flyer sent to residents this week asks them to separate trash into three categories. One orange bin will hold aluminum cans and glass bottles and jars; the other is for newspapers. Residents will continue to use their own containers for the remaining trash, and the collection schedule will not change.

The instructions require that caps and lids be excluded from the glass bin and that magazines, phone books, catalogues and other non-newspaper materials be left out of the second bin.

Toxic materials should not be included in trash to be collected at curbside. La Habra residents may take hazardous materials to a center in Anaheim at 2761 White Star Ave. between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Trash collection will continue to be handled by Western Waste Industries, operating out of Santa Fe Springs, and using vehicles with three compartments, said Gallina.

The flyer warns that scavenging of recyclable items from curbside containers is illegal. “We’re going to have a hard time with the scavenging,” sanitation foreman Joseph Gallina said. “If we find a guy in a pickup truck throwing aluminum cans in the back, you bet your boots we’re going to arrest him.”

In a letter accompanying the flyer, Mayor Beth Graham notes, “Regulations require cities and counties to reduce by 25% the amount of refuse taken to landfills by the year 1995.”

Trash collection charges were recently increased from $7.23 to $9.18 monthly to help fund the new program.

Gallina said he hopes the recycling program will forestall further increases. He said landfill charges are expected to continue going up but that reducing the volume of refuse and generating revenues from the sale of recyclables may offset rising costs.

According to City Manager Lee Risner, efforts will soon be under way to separate grass cuttings and other “green waste” from city parks for compaction or eventual composting.