DANA POINT : Council to Consider Citywide Recycling

For the past 18 months, a select group of 1,000 homes has received curbside recycling. Tonight the City Council will consider expanding the program to all households.

At a public hearing, the council will also hear the merits of a plan to employ a fully automated recycling system to do the job.

The city staff has recommended that the city utilize state-of-the-art automated collection trucks and containers for the proposed program.

“Automated collection . . . has numerous advantages, including improved aesthetics, higher productivity, lower costs and reduced workers’ compensation claims,” said Gary Dysart, deputy city engineer. “There’s just one person driving the truck and he doesn’t have to get out and grab the barrels.”

Under the plan favoring automation, residents would be issued two 60-gallon bins, one for recyclables and the other for solid-waste materials. Residents under the trial program were given three stackable bins to separate glass, plastic and newspapers.

Dysart said that the program has been a success, showing a “high participation rate by residents in the pilot program area.”

A six-month lead time would be needed to order and receive the new trucks and collection bins, he said. If approved, automated recycling for the entire city would begin on Jan. 1.

The cost would be $13.25 per month for each household. Currently, residents pay $10.96 each month for trash pickup without curbside recycling.

The automated system would take many materials not collected by the three-bin method, including junk mail and common cardboard items such as used cereal boxes, Dysart said.