Recycling Program Ready to Roll Out : Garbage: On Monday, many residents will begin separating reusable materials from their trash. Effort will be citywide by fall, 1992.

Two years and more than $100 million in the making, Los Angeles’ curbside garbage recycling program begins Monday, slightly smaller than planned, but on schedule and keeping its lofty goal of finding uses for 30% of the city’s household trash.

The kickoff for what officials say will become the nation’s largest municipal recycling program was to be marked modestly enough--with just one sanitation truck picking up glass and plastic bottles, aluminum and tin cans, and newspapers from about 800 homes in El Sereno.

The program will be expanded slowly--by just one truck route per day, five days a week, on alternating weeks through the end of the year, said Drew Sones, director of recycling for the city.

“It’s a shakedown cruise,” he said.

The number of homes to be brought into the program daily had to be cut by almost half, Sones said, because of delays in contracting for high-tech garbage trucks and automated collection bins. A $19-million contract was approved by the City Council only last week, and the trucks and bins will not be delivered until early next year.

But determined to stick to the schedule, sanitation workers will use existing equipment to begin limited recycling in selected Highland Park neighborhoods on Tuesday, Elysian Park on Wednesday, Los Feliz/Griffith Park on Thursday and Hollywood on Friday.

Recycling will then roll out to other North-Central Los Angeles communities such as Echo Park, Mt. Washington, Eagle Rock and Glassell Park through year-end.

Bureau of Sanitation officials plan to have 24,000 homes formally in the recycling program by Jan. 1, joining the 95,000 Los Angeles households already in an experimental program.

The program will be introduced in turn to West Los Angeles in June, the Harbor District in July, the East Valley in September, 1991, and the South-Central and West Valley areas in April, 1992.

By September, 1992, city officials plan to have more than 720,000 residences separating glass, plastic and metal containers, newspapers and lawn waste from their household trash for collection and recycling.

Homeowners will be issued at least one yellow plastic bin for collecting bottles and cans and two 60-gallon containers--one each for household trash and lawn waste. Initially, lawn waste will be collected only in selected neighborhoods on a pilot basis.

Newspapers are to be tied or stacked in paper bags and placed at the curb.

By 1995, when the program is fully implemented, the city will have invested about $360 million in its effort to fully automate trash collection and pare by 30% the more than 5,000 tons of household trash that are sent daily to landfills.

Hundreds more California communities will inaugurate similar programs under state legislation requiring every city to reduce its trash stream by at least 25% by 1995 and 50% by the year 2000. Curbside recycling programs are already under way in hundreds of communities, including Santa Monica, Burbank and Glendale.

In the Los Angeles pilot program, Sones said, about 50% of residents voluntarily recycled.

“The public is anxious for it,” he said. “People seem to understand the program well and want to participate.”

To meet the goal of recycling 30% of all trash by 1995, Sones said 80% of all residents would have to be participating. The program is intended to be mandatory, but Sones said that as long as goals are being met it will be operated on a voluntary basis.

“If we can’t make the 30% goal by 1995, then we’ll trigger an enforcement effort,” he said.

For those about to begin recycling, Sones had a few tips.

Rinse out bottles and cans whenever possible, he said, explaining that “it helps us with the quality of the materials” and keeps ants out of the kitchen. And of the various plastic bottles used in the home, Sones said, only the PET type--used for soda, milk and water--are to be recycled.

Otherwise, Sones said, “Just start (recycling) and it becomes a natural habit. And you know what? You feel better after you do it.”

RECYCLING SCHEDULE

Recycling will begin Monday in the North-Central part of Los Angeles and fan out community by community through November, 1992.

Here is the Bureau of Sanitation’s schedule for implementing the program: North-Central, from September, 1990, to July, 1991. Includes 140,000 households in Hollywood, Los Feliz, Eagle Rock, Atwater Village, Silver Lake, Glassell Park, Echo Park, Highland Park, Mt. Washington, El Sereno, Korea Town, Hancock Park, Westlake and Boyle Heights.

West, from June, 1991, to November, 1991. Includes 120,000 households in Pacific Palisades, Bel-Air, Beverly Glen, Mt. Olympus, Brentwood, Westwood, Century City, Rancho Park, Palms, Mid-City, Venice, Mar Vista, Playa Del Rey, Westchester and Miracle Mile.

Harbor, from July, 1991, to September, 1991. Includes 28,000 households in Wilmington, San Pedro and Harbor City.

East Valley, from September, 1991, to April, 1992. Includes 162,000 households in Sylmar, Mission Hills, Lake View Terrace, Pacoima, Arleta, Panorama City, Sun Valley, Sunland, Tujunga, Sepulveda, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Universal City and Toluca Lake.

South-Central, from April, 1992, to September, 1992. Includes 110,000 households in Mid-City, Hyde Park and Watts.

West Valley, from April, 1992, to November, 1992. Includes 160,000 households in Granada Hills, Porter Ranch, West Hills, Chatsworth, Northridge, Canoga Park, Winnetka, Warner Center, Woodland Hills, Reseda, Tarzana and Encino.