BREA

Outsiders are dumping on Brea’s good reputation for recycling garbage, and the city is doing what it can to solve the problem.

In the past two years, the amount of trash listed as coming from Brea has increased so much, the city is drastically behind waste diversion requirements set by the state 10 years ago.

Raymond Hull, spokesman for Orange County’s Integrated Waste Management division, said contractors hauling waste from outside the city often lie to landfill gatekeepers about where their garbage is coming from and say it is from Brea.

“The current policy is [landfill gatekeepers] just ask the driver where the waste came from,” he said. The hauler has to pay a fee depending only on the amount of waste being dumped.

The increase in the amount of garbage attributed to Brea has thrown a wrench in the city’s ability to meet state waste-reduction requirements.

The California Integrated Waste Management Act, passed in 1989, ordered cities to reduce the amount of refuse dumped in landfills by 50% in 2000.

Through a recycling program, Brea was able to slash its landfill waste by 42% in 1996. But after BKK closed in 1997, that number plummeted to 14%. The situation hasn’t changed much since then.