Calabasas : City OKs Surcharge to Boost Recycling

The Calabasas City Council, in an effort to expand the city’s recycling program, has approved a surcharge on businesses and multifamily dwellings that would be reduced if they participate in the recycling program.

Under the new regulation, businesses and multifamily dwellings will be charged 50 cents per cubic yard of trash they generate each month. Single-family units already pay the surcharge under an existing city ordinance, enacted in May, 1993.

Funds raised by the surcharge will go toward a city program set up to comply with a state law that requires cities to cut down on the amount of trash they send to landfills.

While nobody wants to pay more in fees, “this is a state-mandated program, and we really don’t have much choice,” said City Councilman Marvin Lopata. The vote on introducing the surcharge, taken last week, was unanimous.

Under a state law enacted in 1989, communities must divert from landfills 25% of their waste by Dec. 31, 1995, and 50% by Jan. 1, 2000.

Multidwelling units and businesses were not included in the initial city ordinance because the city’s recycling program was designed to be introduced in phases, starting with single-family units, said Susan Zalusky, city recycling coordinator.

“Currently, we’ve got close to two-thirds of the commercial business community voluntarily recycling,” she said, adding that many are already using recycling bins. “I think businesses are more aware of the waste. They see more of it, and they know more about what can be recycled.”

The new ordinance encourages businesses and multifamily dwellings to recycle by reducing the 50-cent surcharge if they use some of their trash bins for recycling, she said. For example, a business with two, three-cubic-yard bins would save $1.50 in surcharge fees a month per pickup if it used one of those bins for recyclable items.

The average business, which has pickups twice a week, would save $10 a month.

“We now have everybody at a point where they are able to recycle,” Zalusky said.

“We have done very well. We have hit 19% just with the single family and with the rest involved, we see no problem with meeting the 25%.”