Waste Hauler to Expand Recycling System

In an effort to meet state-mandated recycling quotas, the city’s waste hauler plans to dramatically expand its facility within 18 months to reuse more of the trash it collects.

Rainbow Disposal Co., the city’s trash hauler for three decades, plans to construct a 37,900-square-foot recycling facility. The new center will separate and recycle aluminum, glass, newspapers, cardboard and other paper products, tin, wood, film, concrete, asphalt and other materials.

The company also plans to add 13,300 square feet to its existing transfer station--more than doubling its current size--to accommodate an anticipated increase in trash volume. Rainbow, which now can hold up to 2,000 tons of rubbish per day, will increase its capacity to 2,800 tons.

The planned expansion, recently approved by the Planning Commission, is expected to cost Rainbow between $5 million and $7 million, with costs being passed on to its customers, said Ron Shenkman, a spokesman for the firm. Rainbow officials have not yet determined how much will be added to average trash bills.

The expansion will complement the site’s 8-year-old transfer station, which now recycles only large materials such as metals and concrete from construction sites. Aluminum cans and glass bottles can now be recycled at Stubby’s Recycling Center next to the trash hauler’s facility.

The Rainbow location, on Nichols Street near Beach Boulevard and Warner Avenue, is also the site of a household hazardous-materials collection center, one of three such facilities in Orange County.

The new recycling center is scheduled to open in early 1993, serving mainly customers from Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley.

Rainbow will not collect recyclable materials during curbside trash collection, as many other cities have done. Instead, the firm will use new machinery to separate a wide variety of reusable items from other waste.

Additionally, the facility will be open for residents to bring in recyclable items. The center is scheduled to be open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The expanded center is a key element of the firm’s recycling effort, which it says is an effective alternative to curbside recycling.

Under state law, all cities by 1995 must reduce their waste output by 25% and must divert half their current waste from landfills by the year 2000. To accomplish this, many Orange County cities have introduced curbside recycling programs.

Shenkman, a former Huntington Beach mayor, said some cities’ curbside recycling programs have struggled because of lack of participation, and he noted that such programs typically collect only aluminum, glass and newspapers.

Under Rainbow’s program, all of the trash that is hauled by the firm--not just that from residents included in a curbside program--will be sorted for recyclables, and a wider variety of reusable materials will be sought, Shenkman said.