PORT HUENEME : Drop-Off Centers for Recycling OKd

The city of Port Hueneme entered the recycling age Wednesday night when the City Council agreed to fund drop-off centers for newspapers, glass, plastics and cans.

The city, one of the last in Ventura County to adopt a recycling program, still is not proceeding fast enough for resident Sheila Merlino, who criticized council members for not funding a curbside program.

“Every other city is encouraging people to recycle, and we’re living in the Dark Ages,” said Merlino, who has refused to pay her municipal trash bill until the city adopts a comprehensive recycling program. “We’re still doing the minimum we can do under state law.”

“We’re not dragging our feet,” countered Mayor Orvene Carpenter. “We’re doing the best we can do with the money we have.”

The cost of the drop-off program will include $6,300 for the purchase of dumpsters and $10,000 a year to haul the materials, said city Public Works Director Jack Duffy.

Duffy said curbside recycling would cost city residents $96,000 a year and would require a $2-per-month surcharge on their $12.75-a-month trash bills. The hauler would keep any profits from selling the recycled materials, he said.

Duffy estimated that the drop-off program may divert between 1% and 14% of city trash from the county landfill. All California cities must divert 25% of their waste by 1995.

Port Hueneme, where only Christmas trees and telephone books have been recycled by the city, has seen 20% of its trash diverted from the landfill through buy-back centers and supermarket drop-offs, Duffy said.

The drop-off program will start Feb. 12 with dumpsters set up for newspapers. Additional dumpsters will be added within two months to accommodate mixed loads of glass, plastic and metal.

The drop-off sites are planned for Moranda Park, the city service yard on Surfside Drive, the athletic center on Pleasant Valley Road, Bard Road and Park Avenue near Bubbling Springs Park, the Hueneme Bay senior housing complex and the Surfside I condominium complex. A seventh site remains to be chosen in the area west of Patterson Road and north of Channel Islands Boulevard.