Recycling Program Surpasses Forecasts

Thousand Oaks collected nearly 100 tons of waste, more than officials expected, in its first month of the city’s pilot household recycling program.

Grahame Watts, the city’s recycling coordinator, said 80% of the 3,000 households in the pilot program participated in recycling efforts.

“Things are going really well,” Watts said.

He said the city hopes to expand the program to include about 30,000 households by the end of next year.

Under state law, cities have until January, 1995, to cut the amount of trash they send to landfills by 25%.

Watts predicts that Thousand Oaks can meet that goal after local businesses, as well as the households, are included in the program. He said he is meeting with several employers to discuss recycling options.

The City Council voted several months ago to start the curbside recycling campaign, making Thousand Oaks the third city in the county with such a program. Simi Valley was the first, followed by Ventura.

In the first month of its recycling project, Simi Valley collected 23 tons of waste from 1,000 households. After expanding its program to include nearly 13,000 households, it collected 422 tons in July.

Ventura’s program serves 20,000 residences and collects about 750 tons of waste a month.

As part of the Thousand Oaks efforts, the city set up six newspaper collection sites about a month ago. Nearly 100 tons of paper have been collected.