Twelve Fallbrook complexes part of state recycling grant

A state grant for beverage container recycling programs will be implemented at 21 low-income multi-family apartment and condominium complexes throughout unincorporated San Diego County, including 12 complexes in Fallbrook

The California Department of Conservation provided a Muiltifamily Beverage Container Recycling Grant Program award of $126,000 to the County of San Diego for a two-year period. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously December 5 to accept the grant along with a $20,628 Farm and Ranch Solid Waste Cleanup and Abatement Grant Program award and a $273,894 Used Oil Research, Testing and Demonstration Grant Program award which will be spent over a three-year period.

“The state has been very generous to San Diego County,” said Wayne Williams, the program manager of the solid waste planning and recycling section in the county’s Department of Public Works.

“They gave us more money than we asked for, which I think is pretty good,” Williams said. “We’re very excited about this.”

The beverage container recycling grant award will include the Fallbrook View, Amerwood, Rosewood, Town and Country, Summer Ridge, Turnagain Arms, Pine View, Country View, Fallbrook Village, Fallbrook Manor, Palm Terrace, and Fallbrook Hills

multi-family complexes. “What we’ve been doing over the past few years is locate clusters of multi-family complexes that would be good candidates to start recycling,” Williams said.

“The biggest clusters for the lower-income were Fallbrook and Spring Valley, some in Lakeside,” Williams said. “Over the past couple of years we’ve been working with Fallbrook in particular.”

The county’s role includes approaching complex owners and managers. “We want to be partners with them on this,” Williams said.

Garbage audits will be performed on candidate complexes and space will be identified to place the recycling bins. “We show them the economics of this,” Williams said. “Almost invariably recycling is cheaper than just throwing stuff in the landfill.”

In some cases there is a demand for recyclable materials. Tenants may see rent increases less frequently if landlords can save money through recycling

County staff estimates that 1,210 units and 2,541 residents will be served by the grant. After the recycling haulers provide the collection containers, door hangers and refrigerator magnets will be provided to residents to inform them about which materials

will be accepted. Residents will also be provided with in-unit containers to store and carry their recyclable materials to the complex’s bins. Signs on both the recycling bins and the trash dumpsters will remind residents that bottles and cans are to be separated from the trash and placed in the recycling bins. Where possible, single-stream recycling containers, which handle bottles, cans, cardboard, mixed paper, and glass in the same container, will be provided.

“It gives everybody a sense of community,” Williams said. “It makes for a better place to live.”

Recycling bottles, cans, newspapers, and cardboard can divert 30 percent of waste from landfills. When wine bottles and other glass containers are also recycled, the diversion rate can reach 50 percent. “We’re talking big tonnage here,” Williams said.

“This is a strong forward step.”

The Farm and Ranch Solid Waste Cleanup grant program is funded by the California Integrated Waste Management Board and provides grants to local jurisdictions to conduct or assist the cleanup of illegal solid waste disposal sites on farm and ranch property. The county’s two grants will reimburse the county for cleanup on one site in Bonsall and three locations in Fallbrook which were the victims of illegal dumping. “These caches of garbage represent a danger to human health and safety,” Williams said.

“They’re all over the place.”

The California Integrated Waste Management Board also administers the Used Oil Research, Testing and Demonstration Grant Program which helps local governments establish or enhance permanent and sustainable used oil recycling collection sites at no charge to the public.

The grant funding which covers programs through Fiscal Year 2009-10 will be used to expand or establish oil and filter collection programs in unincorporated communities.

Targeted sites include county-operated airports, automotive technology training classes and facilities, and agricultural areas, and the funding will also be used for a program to expand outreach to immigrants and Spanish-language residents.