Thousand Oaks Debates Tougher Stance on Trash : Environment: New law would outlaw mixing recyclable waste with other garbage. Residents would have to participate in curbside program.

The Thousand Oaks City Council tonight will debate a tough new trash law that would make it a criminal offense for residents to mix recyclable cans, bottles and other waste with other garbage.

Chucking a soda can in with banana peels and other garbage would violate the proposed law. So would tossing away an old newspaper, a plastic milk jug, or an empty beer bottle.

The comprehensive trash law--one of the strictest in Ventura County--would require all residents to pay for, and participate in, curbside recycling programs.

Most Thousand Oaks households already subscribe to trash collection services, and the monthly fee includes curbside recycling. Under the law, the 5% of homeowners without regular trash collection would have to sign up with a city-approved hauler.

And everyone would have to separate their garbage for curbside recycling.

“Technically, we could find you guilty of a misdemeanor if we found you throwing out a yogurt container at home,” solid waste planner Carolyn Greene said.

Crafted after long discussions with the city’s trash haulers, the new regulations are designed to reduce the amount of garbage Thousand Oaks sends to landfills.

Within the next seven years, the city must cut in half the amount of solid waste dumped in landfills or face hefty state fines. About 75% of Thousand Oaks’ households now recycle at least occasionally--but that compliance rate may not be good enough, especially as the state deadline approaches.

City trash experts hope to meet their waste reduction goals by educating the public about recycling. They would also like to offer financial incentives to recycle, such as lower trash-collection fees for residents who keep garbage to a minimum.

But as a backup, they’ve written a strict and sweeping ordinance.

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Each violation of the solid waste law would carry a maximum penalty of six months in jail and $1,000.

The Ojai City Council recently passed a mandatory recycling law similar to the draft before the Thousand Oaks council tonight. Yet the city’s solid waste planner, Marilyn Miller, said she did not anticipate slapping residents with jail terms or hefty fines for failing to separate the garbage.

In Thousand Oaks, too, code enforcement officials said they would treat prosecutions gingerly.

“We’re not going after Joe Blow citizen,” said Deputy City Atty. Nancy Kierstyn Schreiner.

An anti-scavenging provision, for example, would be used only against organized trash-pickers who steal recyclables and trade them for cash. “It’s not our intention to enforce this against a person who’s pulling cans out of a trash barrel in a park,” Greene said.

And few people are likely to be fined for violating the “customer responsibilities” section of the law, which defines exactly how long trash cans can remain on the curb in public view (a maximum of 30 hours, starting at 6 p.m. the evening before collection day).

“The ordinance is written as an ultimatum--’Thou shalt’-- but we see our enforcement on a realistic basis,” Greene said.

Reluctant to even threaten jail terms for residents who refuse to separate their trash, most Ventura County city councils have not considered mandatory recycling. Simi Valley, Camarillo, Oxnard and Ventura all rely on voluntary compliance with various recycling programs.

“We try to make the point that it is a community responsibility,” said Oxnard recycling specialist Jay Duncan. “I’d like to see a mandatory recycling ordinance, but as far as imprisonment, that’s a little extreme.”

Voicing yet another concern, Ventura Councilman Gary Tuttle predicted that enforcement of mandatory recycling would be nearly impossible.

Even if a code enforcement official spotted a recyclable bottle in someone’s garbage, Tuttle said, “How do you know who’s putting it in (the) trash can? How do you catch the culprit?”

Still, several Thousand Oaks council members on Monday indicated support for the solid waste ordinance, including the mandatory recycling provision.

“I really don’t think the city is stepping onto individual freedoms here,” Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski said. “Proper waste disposal is a part of living in a community.”

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But some trash experts voiced skepticism about the law’s effectiveness--and alarm about its broad provisions.

“Recycling is just like morals. You can’t legislate it,” said Perri Jean Schlosser, a manager at Simi Valley Recycling Center Inc.

Noting that the law grants the city complete control over all solid waste set out for disposal, Schlosser added: “This is a pretty overwhelming, and perhaps over-regulating, law. Maybe they’ve expanded their police powers more than they should.”

Although he supports the law in general, trash hauler Mike Smith expressed doubt that the recycling mandate would work.

“When you tell people they have to do something, they don’t always take too kindly to it,” said Smith, the chief executive officer of Conejo Valley Disposal. “We want to be politically correct in encouraging people not to throw things in the landfill.”

Times staff writers Fred Alvarez, Sara Catania and Peggy Y. Lee contributed to this report.