Dedicated Neighbors Pitching In

Until recently, Candelaria Diaz had never really thought about recycling. She--and the 10 other people in her North Hollywood household--just tossed out their cans, jars and other junk.

But ever since city work crews dropped off a free recycling container at her house on Arminta Street, Diaz said, the whole household has dutifully joined what city officials hope will become a dedicated army of recyclers.

“Now that the city gave us this, we put our bottles and cans in the bin,” she said. It feels good, she said, to know that she is helping clean the environment.

Diaz is not alone.

Several North Hollywood residents participating in the city’s new recycling and automated garbage disposal program said Thursday they were happy with the service because it provides a convenient and painless way to recycle. Diaz and her neighbors are among 26,000 East Valley households that have been issued a recycling bin and two special 60-gallon trash containers on wheels. The city hopes to phase in the remaining 112,000 households in the East Valley by August.

On Thursday, trash day, Arminta Street and Wilkinson Avenue were lined with the dark green or brown containers resting beside yellow recycling bins at the edge of the sidewalk.

Residents are free to fill their two 60-gallon containers, plus additional ones of their own. But this will soon change. City officials plan to adopt an ordinance that would charge residents for going over the 120-gallon limit--$5 for each additional 30 gallons of trash.

Such surcharges prompted one of the few complaints about the recycling program.

“I think it’s ridiculous that they will have to pay for it,” said Linda Kazdin, adding that large families may produce more than 120 gallons of trash a week.

But some said 120 gallons of garbage is plenty.

Mike Shubarlyan said the two industrial-size cans were sufficient for his eight-person household. And even Diaz said her huge household often uses just one can. If anything overflows, it’s the recycling bin.

Evelyn Valenzuela, Diaz’s neighbor, said the only problem with the curbside system is that the bins attract scavengers who easily pick out recyclables before the city trucks get to them. She uses the bins for her plastics and glass, and saves the cans for her grandchildren to take to school, she said.

Among the bigger fans of the new system is Preston Brown. He should be. He drives a large aqua garbage truck and distastefully remembered his days of manually picking up bursting garbage cans and dumping them into the trucks.

Now Brown maneuvers a claw-like arm to empty the trash containers into his truck. It’s like operating a video game, he said. A joystick moves the arm in any direction, and a button on the end tightens or releases the claw’s grip on the plastic garbage cans.

And as for his aim?

Occasionally the cans fall over or spill their loads on the street if they are overstuffed. When that happens, Brown puts on his gloves, pulls out a shovel and sweeps the garbage up--just like in the old days.