SEAL BEACH : Council Seeks Ways to Expand Recycling

The road to recycling for the city’s downtown area continues to be rocky as city officials wrestle with issues of scavenging and local alleyways that are unable to accommodate recycling trucks.

While most of the city’s trash collection was switched to recycling in February, 1994, the downtown area known as Old Town is still in need of a recycling program to help the city meet the California Integrated Waste Management Act requirements.

Seal Beach has yet to adopt a commercial recycling program for businesses throughout the city.

City Manager Jerry L. Bankston recommended a plan to council members a week ago, suggesting the use of 16-gallon bins or baskets for recyclable trash. But Councilwoman Gwen Forsythe said the baskets would provide a field day for scavengers who seek out trash for cash.

“I think you will lose your containers,” Forsythe said. “If we go to the separate containers in the alleys--it’s shopping time.”

The state law requires all California cities to implement a plan for a 50% reduction in solid waste by the year 2000.

Any plan developed for the tight spaces of the downtown business areas and residential alleys will have to be “flexible,” Bankston said, offering merchants a choice of alternative recycling methods.

Mayor George Brown said no recycling plan will be immune to scavenging.

“If we get into a recycling program, this city is going to reap great benefits,” Brown said, “even though they scavenge part of it.”