South Bay : Recycling Center Marks Anniversary

In 1970, a group of Palos Verdes Peninsula women jumped ahead of the curve in environmental awareness and created Los Angeles County’s first recycling center.

Wednesday, the local branch of the American Assn. of University Women celebrated the silver anniversary of their creation with a party at the Palos Verdes Peninsula Library and a discussion about the future of the environmental movement.

In its infancy, the Palos Verdes Recycle Center was open only eight hours a week with a staff of eager student volunteers. Now, the Rolling Hills Estates facility has not only relocated and expanded, but it has also changed over to county management and is open 32 hours a week. Before the change, the center had been touted nationally, and even internationally, as a model of a volunteer-run recycling center.

The origins of the facility stretch back to a two-year course on environmental degradation taken by a handful of women in the 260-member organization.

At the end of the course, class member Dorian Dunlavey said, the women were encouraged to take action to correct the problem. The recycling center was the result.

“I think in a very small way we alleviated some of the damage being done to this earth,” Dunlavey said.