Recycling Approved for Marina del Rey : Trash: The ordinance clears the way for collection of separated materials at apartments, condominiums and businesses.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved an ordinance that clears the way for collection of recyclable materials at apartments, condominiums and businesses in Marina del Rey and other communities directly governed by the county.

The board on Tuesday voted that, beginning Jan. 1, trash haulers in unincorporated communities in the county can be ordered to pick up trash separately from recyclables--newspapers and containers made of glass, plastic and aluminum.

The ordinance applies to trash collected at businesses, apartments and condominiums--supplementing a law approved last year that allows curbside recycling in several neighborhoods of single-family homes.

Before recycling bins appear during 1991, however, the county must give trash haulers 90 days notice so they have time to prepare for the new service, said Mike Mohajer, the county Department of Public Works engineer who coordinates recycling programs.

“Ultimately this allows us to expand our recycling program to any unincorporated part of the county, for any type of product that can be recycled,” Mohajer said.

The county’s action is a response to a 1989 state law that requires cities and counties to reduce their garbage output 25% by 1995 and 50% by the year 2000.

Los Angeles County produces 50,000 tons of trash a day, enough to fill Dodger Stadium in nine days, but by 1995 must cut the amount of garbage it sends to landfills by 12,500 tons daily.

Counties and cities face fines of up to $10,000 a day if they do not meet the goals of the state Integrated Solid Waste Management Act.

The county has already launched curbside recycling pickups in the single-family residential sections of Altadena, Hacienda Heights, La Crescenta, Montrose and east Pasadena.

Several apartment buildings and businesses in Marina del Rey have arranged voluntarily to have material for recycling picked up by trash haulers. But the Board of Supervisors asked earlier this year that a mandatory program for the entire marina be initiated.

Mohajer said he expects notices to be sent early next year to the 11 trash firms that serve the marina, giving them 90 days to enact a recycling plan.

The three-month start-up gives trash companies time to buy new equipment, such as recycling bins and modified collection trucks, Mohajer said. It also allows them to find markets for the recyclable materials.

Apartment and business owners also need the time to make room for bins that will hold newspapers, cans and bottles, Mohajer said.

Other unincorporated communities will be added to the recycling program shortly after the marina, county officials said.

The county Department of Public Works has discussed collecting recyclables at homes and businesses in Malibu, but implementation of the program may be left to the community’s city government.

Malibu voted to incorporate in June, but cityhood has been delayed by the Board of Supervisors, which wants to build a sewer system in Malibu.