COSTA MESA : Phone Book Recycle Goal Is Doubled

The city has set up eight bins to start its third annual recycling program for telephone books.

The goal this year is to collect at least 100 tons of books, said Florine T. Reichle, assistant manager of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District. The program will run until Dec. 16.

Pacific Bell, one of the program’s sponsors, started delivering new books this week, allowing residents to discard the old. The new books include information about the recycling program, including addresses of the drop-off locations in Spanish and English.

“We recovered 50 tons last year and 15 tons the year before that, so we’re looking for at least 100 tons this year,” Reichle said.

The collected directories will be sent to Pacific Rim countries to be converted into packing materials, insulation and other fiber-related products.

About 130 other California cities run such recovery programs, said Jan Birkelbach, local market manager for Pacific Bell Directory. For the first time, Irvine is collecting books and has challenged Costa Mesa for bragging rights as to which city will recycle more.

“Community-sponsored directory recycling programs, like this Costa Mesa effort, are beginning to catch on all over the country,” Birkelbach said. “As a result, thousands of tons of outdated Pacific Bell telephone directories are kept out of state landfills.”

Pacific Bell distributes about 2.5 million directories yearly to Orange County, Reichle said.

Residents in cities that do not have a recovery program are welcome to drop off directories in Costa Mesa bins, she said.

The bins are located at: City Hall, 77 Fair Drive; Lions Park on Anaheim Street, south of 19th Street; the 3100 block of Airway Avenue, south of Baker Street; Sunflower Avenue, between Harbor Boulevard and Fairview Road; the Orange Coast College Recycling Center on Adams Avenue between Fairview Road and Pinecreek Drive; Costa Mesa Disposal, 2051 Placentia Ave.; Lindbergh School, Orange Avenue north of 22nd Street, and Shiffer Park, 3143 Bear St.

For information on the city’s recycling program, call the Resource Recovery Hotline at (714) 754-5600.