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PORT HUENEME : City to Join Recycle Zone to Help Harbor

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The City Council has voted to include Port Hueneme in a state Recycling Market Development Zone, a move officials hope will create jobs and bring new business to the city’s port.

The focus of the project, administered by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, is to offer low-interest state loans to businesses in the zone that use recycled materials, City Manager Dick Velthoen said.

The council voted unanimously to join the project at Wednesday’s meeting.

Victoria Hand, manager of the recycling division of the county’s Solid Waste Management Department, said there is an effort to incorporate all 10 of Ventura County’s cities in the project. Santa Paula, Camarillo, Fillmore and Moorpark have also joined the project.

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While most of Port Hueneme’s land is already developed, Velthoen said the city’s tiny seaport could benefit from the low-interest loans through the export of products made with recycled materials.

“This will foster opportunities for businesses related to recycling,” Velthoen told the council Wednesday night. “The Port of Hueneme could eventually benefit from this” by exporting products from the port.

Velthoen said there would be no immediate costs to the city for joining the project. Hand echoed Velthoen’s enthusiasm for the project.

“It could be a great place for us to export,” Hand said in a telephone interview. If a business in an inland city does well, she said, it could result in jobs for harbor workers.

Officials said the project would have no significant effect on the environment.

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