Recyclables Site Brings Him a Heap of Trouble : Garbage: People come as far as San Clemente to dump recyclables. The landowner is frustrated with the monster he created.

Eight years ago Clarence Humphries, the owner of a strip mall in the city, encouraged area residents to become more environmentally aware.

His idea to create a drop-off point for recyclable garbage on an access lane behind his mall started with a modest wooden newspaper bin.

“Originally, I allowed this one fellow to drop off his papers for recycling here,” said Humphries, 77, while standing near a wall of garbage stretching at least 30 feet down the lane behind his mall on Crown Valley Parkway and Niguel Road. “Now it has gotten so big you can’t control it.”

That lone collection bin for newsprint has blossomed into one of the largest pickup points for recyclables in the county, Humphries said.

And though the city will gradually institute a recycling program citywide next year, Humphries does not think that his dump, which attracts folks from neighboring cities, will go away that fast.

“Instead of getting mad, I realize that people are trying to do a good thing” by recycling, Humphries said. “I let it be created . . . now this is sort of a problem that I am stuck with.”

Each day the four wooden bins bulge with a conglomeration of newspapers, phone books, plastic bottles, cans of oil and household refuse. By most afternoons, the eyesore has spread across the lane as people come from as far as San Clemente to add to the pile.

And on weekends the wall of recyclables expands dramatically.

“It gets to about 50 or 70 feet of papers,” he said. “It looks like hell.”

Vince Morton, 26, of Newport Beach, who had backed up his truck and was unloading bales of newspapers there Wednesday morning,said: “This is like littering. In most places littering is what--a $500 fine?”

Humphries receives no compensation from the city. A private trash hauler removes the pile four or five mornings per week.

Earlier this year, when Humphries realized the magnitude of the monster, he began paying several local teen-agers $3 per hour to stand on the road discouraging people from dumping. That didn’t work.

Then he hired Ken Friess, the former mayor of San Juan Capistrano, as a consultant at $100 per hour to help him dispose of the waste.

Nonetheless, residents continue to dump garbage there, beginning early in the morning and ending late at night.

“I think old habits are hard to break,” said Solveig Darner, the community liaison for the city of Laguna Niguel. “We are trying to work with Mr. Humphries to the best of our ability. I think we all understand his generosity” by providing his land.

Beginning Feb. 15, a weekly curbside garbage-removal program will be implemented in Laguna Niguel, thereby relieving some of Humphries’ unwanted business.

The opening phase of the curbside recycling program will serve about three-fourths of the city’s residents. That leaves about 25% of the population with little option but to continue dumping on Humphries’ land.

“We are trying to look for another piece of property in the city . . . to provide for recycling,” Darner said. “We all know that it has become overwhelming for Mr. Humphries.”