IRVINE : Recycling to Reach Apartments, Condos

Curbside recycling is expanding to the city’s 14,000 residents who have no curbs outside their front doors.

For the first time since Irvine began its 3-year-old curbside recycling program using special bins supplied to residents, the program will be available to apartments and condominiums.

On Wednesday morning, canvassers went door-to-door at apartment and condominium complexes to hang doorknob flyers announcing the program.

Since the city’s voluntary recycling program began in 1987, residents have collected and separated enough newspapers, glass, cans and plastics to fill 10 football fields from the grass to the goal posts, Public Works Director Robert A. Graham said Wednesday. About 71% of the city’s residents participate.

But the program wasn’t available to apartment or condo residents because “the logistics are a little bit different,” he said.

Residents of single-family homes receive three bins in which to separate recyclables from other trash. Apartment complexes, with large trash bins shared by several residents, need a different approach, Graham said.

Beginning this month, apartment and condo residents will receive a large, washable plastic bag to store bottles, cans and plastics. But the biggest change will be inside trash bin enclosures.

On Oct. 27, the city’s trash-collection company will begin replacing some of the bins with 250 recycling containers.