L.A.’s Discards Become O.C. Firm’s Treasures : Recycling: Dump liner to be made by Sukut Construction will help prevent seepage from polluting ground water.

In a move to use thousands of discarded plastic bottles collected by the Los Angeles recycling program, the city’s officials have directed an Orange County private contractor to use them to make a protective liner under the Lopez Canyon dump above Lakeview Terrace.

The city Board of Public Works earlier this month gave a Santa Ana engineering and construction firm, Sukut Construction Inc., a $3.6-million contract to install the multi-layer liner, which is meant to protect underground water from polluted seepage.

The project to protect ground water beneath the dump will absorb about 800,000--or a five-week supply--of the two-liter beverage containers that the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation collects in its residential curbside recycling program, said Gyl Elliott, public information director for the bureau’s recycling and waste reduction division.

The arrangement reflects a continuing quest to find adequate markets for a flood of recyclable materials, which has been the Achilles heel of recycling programs. Elliott said low demand for plastic bottles has been a particular headache, contributing to the low bulk price of $12 a ton that the city is paid for all materials collected in the curbside program.

The liner system includes a clay base topped by a layer of plastic sheeting and a layer of gravel. The plastic bottles will be used to make a liner cushion, or “geotextile,” aimed at preventing the gravel from puncturing the layer of plastic, said Sukut project manager Jerry Pabbruwee.

This will not be the first or even largest use of plastic beverage containers in a liner cushion, Pabbruwee said, adding that his company is installing one in Irvine’s Coyote Canyon landfill. The millions of beverage containers separate layers of dirt on top of the landfill, which has been filled to capacity. The liner will prevent gases from seeping into the atmosphere.

Although the liner construction will make only a small dent in the mountain of discarded plastic containers, Elliott said, the project “helps to promote markets for material and it helps people to see and understand that the stuff they’re throwing away can turn into something valuable.”

Times staff writer Dean Takahashi contributed to this report.