Plan Outlines Ways to Cut Trash, Increase Recycling

City officials from throughout San Diego County took an ambitious first step Friday toward improving the way they handle their trash.

Board members of the San Diego Assn. of Governments at City Hall unveiled a task force’s far-reaching plan to reduce the amount of garbage dumped into county landfills, as required by a 1989 state-mandated waste-management act.

Sandag is calling for increased household recycling, the development of the recyclable goods market and the creation of as many as a dozen more waste-sorting plants.

“The big thing is that this is going to impact every single business and household within the entire county,” Sandag spokesman Gary Bonelli said in interview. “Everybody who has disinfectants, pesticides and paints in their garages are going to have to figure out what they can do with them other than dumping them down the drain or putting them in a landfill.”

The state law requires cities to cut the volume of trash they dump into California landfills by at least 25% by 1995 and by 50% by the year 2000. In volume, that means county cities will recycle close to 1.7 million tons of waste in 1995 and 2.7 million tons in 2000.

Cities that fail to comply with the law could be fined as much as $10,000 by the state waste-management board.

San Diego County now diverts about 10% of its waste from landfills by recycling and other methods.

The increase in recycling on the household level would be performed by expanding curbside pickup of recyclable goods to more homes, apartments and condominiums.

Cities would ask residents to participate with the recycling efforts on a voluntary basis, but incentives such as reduced garbage rates for participating homes might be offered.

How much the ambitious endeavor would cost taxpayers is unknown and would vary from city to city, as would the method of taxing residents. Some cities might choose to use general funds to foot the bill while others might ask individual households to pay a monthly recycling service fee.

Officials will also have to decide where to locate as many as 12 trash-sorting facilities.

Under consideration is designating the Donovan State Prison in Otay Mesa as a recycling facility, using inmates to sort the waste before it is changed into a marketable product.