Wilmington Recycler Agrees to Shut Down : Business: Residents are dubious that the firm, which was supposed to close May 16, will finally obey the city order.

The owners of a Wilmington recycling business on Pacific Coast Highway say they will bow to community pressure--and city law--and close the business by Saturday.

Operating as the Penny Recycler, its owners have kept the business open despite an order by the city of Los Angeles’ Building and Safety Commission to close May 16. The recycler has also drawn opposition from some residents, businesses and the Police Department.

Early last week, the city attorney’s office told Rosa Valenzuela, who owns the business with her family, to close by July 24, and this time she says they will comply.

“My business was a decent business, a clean business that was run by family,” Valenzuela said. “It wasn’t my business that was attracting problems to the area. There’s still a liquor store right there across the street. There’s that motel. When we leave, all that is still going to be there.

“I was giving work to three different families besides myself, and I thought I was doing something good,” Valenzuela added. “You put effort into something, you put your savings, you put dreams and you think you’re going to make it big and boom . . . somebody comes and knocks you down. Now I’m just tired of fighting.”

But residents of the area are just as tired of fighting. Indeed, their efforts to close the Penny Recycler, which never had the permits to operate, seemed a textbook example of how ordinary citizens meet city hall red tape.

“It’s been just the biggest (headache),” said Gertrude Schwab, who along with her husband, Bill, heads the Wilmington North Neighborhood Assn., a group that has been at the forefront of the struggle to close the recycler. They wrote letters, took photographs and rallied support from other community members.

“We knew they were going in there, but we didn’t know what it was going to be,” she said. “Recycling’s neat, and we have nothing against it. But we have four others in the community. If it were the only one it’d be different.”

The Penny Recycler has been open for a year and employs about 12 people who help sort, bundle and resell the cans and bottles that pour in every week. One booth, where collectors are paid for their recyclables, and a scale to weigh the trash make up most of the business operations. The rest of the area is used by people who bring in their trucks or shopping carts and sort the trash they have recovered.

A diligent collector of cans, bottles and other recyclables will average $30 a day, Valenzuela said.

She said she and her husband did not realize they needed a zoning change for the business until after they opened. They sought permission from the Building and Safety Commission last March to keep operating while seeking the change, but the commission ordered the center closed within two months.

The Schwabs and others told the commission that problems come with the type of people who sell their cans and bottles to the business, and the fact that transients routinely go through their trash on pickup days to search for recyclables.

“They go through the alleys, they leave their shopping carts all over the area, they stand out there waiting for the place to open at 9 o’clock, urinating out there in front of school kids,” Gertrude Schwab said.

Los Angeles Board of Education member Warren Furutani joined the opposition after officials at the nearby Fries Elementary School complained that the recycler attracted people who bother the students.

In a letter to city officials, Furutani wrote: “While recycling is environmentally conscious, many of the center’s patrons roam the streets, approach the students, beg for money and defecate in the parking lot.”

The Police Department also took a stand. “We have received numerous complaints from citizens in the area due to the type of person this location attracts,” wrote Harbor Division police Officer Robert Faris, one of the department’s liaisons with the community.

“We have had an increase in crime in the area since the facility started operating. Many transients remain in the community and use the profits from recycling to purchase drugs and alcohol.”

Valenzuela and city officials now agree that Saturday will be the last day for the Penny Recycler to operate. Yet some remain unconvinced that the recycler will truly shut down.

“May 16th they were supposed to close down,” Schwab said. “When we went before the (building and safety) commissioners in March, they gave them 60 days with prejudice. That meant no further appeals.

“Well, they’re still there. Would you believe them? I don’t believe it.”

City officials also are preparing a case if the Valenzuelas fail to comply.

“It they don’t, (we’ll) have to start writing up a history of the place, go through arraignment, plead and set a court date,” said Robert Matsumura of the building and safety investigations division.

He added: “See, in the old days what happened was if you held a city attorney’s hearing, people said, ‘Oh, this is getting serious, we better stop.’ Now they say, ‘Yeah, right. We’ll milk this thing for as long as we can and then we’ll start complying.’ ”