HUNTINGTON BEACH : Automated Recycling Center Dedicated
About 60 city and county officials participated in dedication ceremonies Friday for an $11-million automated recycling center at Rainbow Transfer/Recycling Inc. that reportedly will process 2,000 tons of trash a day when it begins operating in about a year.
When it becomes fully operational in another two years, the Materials Recovery Facility will handle 2,800 tons of trash a day, about equal to the loads of 135 rubbish trucks, according to Stan Tkaczyk, Rainbow vice president.
Trash will be set out on trash day, as always, for pickup. But instead of being taken to the landfill, waste will be hauled to the recycling facility on Nichols Street, where it will move along conveyors through a trommel (a spinning, cylindrical device with different-sized holes.)
Most of the recyclable materials will fall into bays after being separated by weight and size. A backup force of workers will sort the remaining recyclables.
The plan is for the waste to then be taken to the landfill and the recyclable material to be sold on the open market.
The process is expected to add about $2 to the residential $12-a-month trash pickup bill, a Rainbow representative said.
The system gets more recyclables because it picks up commercial and industrial refuse, not just residential as in most curbside pickup systems, officials said.
The system will help the city comply with a state law that requires the city to reduces its waste to landfills 25% by 1995 and 50% by the year 2000.
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