VENTURA : Recycling of School Trays Postponed

A program to recycle plastic foam trays in the Ventura school district has been postponed indefinitely because the janitorial staffs at the schools haven’t yet agreed to sort out the trays, a county sanitation official said this week.

Bill Chiat, a Ventura County Sanitation District official in charge of overseeing recycling programs, announced several weeks ago that the Ventura County Unified School District had become the first entity in the county to recycle Styrofoam trays into audiocassette and compact disc cases.

But last week, Chiat said the program was not operating because the school district’s maintenance superintendent has yet to instruct school custodians to separate the trays.

“I was under the impression the program was working, but there seems to be a lot of misinformation going around,” Chiat said.

He added that he is in the process of setting up a meeting with school officials to get the program started.

Chiat said he was told that some janitors at three schools were participating voluntarily. He said he believed most janitors were not separating trays because that duty is not in the job description of their union contract.

“The key is getting a policy that is approved by the head custodian, so it can be implemented districtwide,” Chiat said. Head custodian Lou Cunningham could not be reached for comment.