State Wants to Open Recycling Plant at Prison

State prison officials want to set up a recycling plant on the grounds of the maximum-security prison that is to open in Lancaster early next year, and local officials are studying whether to send garbage there to be processed.

Lancaster officials said they welcomed the proposal by the Prison Industry Authority to have prison inmates receive, sort, recycle and compost waste. The authority oversees state prison work programs, and it would be the second such facility in the state.

The Lancaster City Council voted unanimously this past week to research recycling markets, disposal costs and the environmental effects of such a plant. Like other municipalities, Lancaster is required by state law to divert at least 25% of its solid waste from landfills by 1995 and 50% by the year 2000.

Currently, about 25% of the city’s residents participate in a voluntary program that recycles about 100 tons of newspapers, aluminum, glass and plastic each month. The city does not have a green waste recycling program.

If the prison plant is established, the city would be able to process as much as 90% of the 400 tons of waste generated daily. Jeff Long, Lancaster’s public works director, said the city will have to pay the state to handle the material but those fees might be lower per ton than the city now pays to a privately run landfill.

A laundry, printing plant and a detergent manufacturing facility at the prison will provide jobs for about 200 inmates and should be operating a few months after its opening in February. State Department of Corrections spokeswoman Solange Brooks said additional jobs created by a recycling plant would be welcome.

“I can’t say enough we want people to work,” Brooks said. “It’s easier to take care of people who are working and not sitting around.”

Prison officials said it could take as long as five years to study the environmental impact of the plant and to obtain the necessary permits.

Folsom State Prison is constructing a 32,000-square-foot recycling facility that will open this year. It will employ about 80 inmates and have the capacity to process 100 tons of waste per day, said Herb Eppel, chief of operations of the Prison Industry Authority.

Other communities including San Diego, Susanville and Taft have expressed an interest in having recycling plants set up at nearby state prisons to help them comply with the state’s Waste Management Act, Eppel said.

The proposed recycling centers at Lancaster and San Diego prisons may process as much as 1,000 tons of waste a day and employ 800 inmates each, Eppel said.