The city provides single-family homes in San Diego with curbside trash and recycling pick-up. But businesses and multi-family complexes often have to go the extra mile to recycle the same basic items on a regular basis because, while the city does make certain provisions for those demographics, they are often not feasible.
According to Stephen Grealy, recycling program manager for the City of San Diego, the only way for multi-family complexes such as apartment and condominium properties to recycle through the city is with biweekly curbside pick-ups with the city provided blue recycling bins. However, complexes such as these are often not equipped to house such a program.
“If a complex is located in the City of San Diego and would like to have city provided recycling,” Grealy said, “the first prerequisite is that they have city-provided trash.”
This means that the complex would have to use the same black bins allotted to homeowners instead of dumpsters that are emptied by private waste haulers such as Waste Management.
“That’s not convenient for a lot of multi-family complexes because they don’t have the space to store as many of those as some would need,” Grealy said. “If they don’t have the space for the black bin they’re probably not going to have space for the blue bin either.”
If a complex does have city provided trash, they still have to meet the curbside prerequisite that ensures that there is enough curb space to safely put the containers out without infringing on neighboring property and to ensure the safety of the collection vehicle, Grealy continued.
“If you pass those two tests then we’ll put you on the list, and as the resources become available we provide the service,” he explained, adding that due to the city’s financial situation, the program has been unable to expand its services to keep up with requests.
Despite the obstacles, Grealy said the city is still willing to assist those complexes in finding a recycling program that works for them.
“We’ll have a recycling specialist come out and help design a program and evaluate the feasibility of a program,” Grealy said, “because typically, depending on the size of the complex there’s often a cost associated with adding the recycling. In many situations this proves to be a stumbling block; people don’t expect to pay anymore.”
According to Grealy, of the approximate 280,000 multi-family units in the city, only 20,000 currently recycle with the city.
However, there are other recycling options if people don’t mind going a little out of the way.
Residents can also recycle through the Department of Park and Recreation, which provides recycling dumpsters for the community. Proceeds from the sale of recyclable goods benefit the respective centers, which have also been affected by successive years of budget cuts.
Peninsula residents have three centers to chose from: the Ocean Beach Recreation Center at 4726 Santa Monica Ave. or the Robb Field Recreation Center at 2525 Bacon St. Cabrillo Recreation Center on Canon Street is not a member of the program for lack of space.
Plastic bottles; newspapers, magazines and telephone directories; glass jars and bottles; cardboard, paper bags and food packaging; metal cans and foil; and paper and junk mail are accepted at both Ocean Beach locations.
The material collected is sorted by the city, and based on the tonnage collected at each site, a check is issued to the center once a year. The Ocean Beach center brought in $815.29 last year, while Robb Field earned $732.91 that assisted in program development.
“OB is a pretty green community,” said Ocean Beach Rec Center Director Kevin Wiggins of the program’s success.
Residents themselves can earn a few bucks by taking recyclables to buy-back centers in the area, including OB Recycling at 4840 Niagara Ave., which purchases metal cans, glass and plastic. Aluminum Cans Plus at 3500 Barnett Ave. also accepts metal cans, other metals, plastic and glass.
With no shortage of collection locations in Ocean Beach, The Beacon set out to see how many local businesses were taking advantage of “green” opportunities.
In a survey of 13 Newport Avenue restaurants and bars (that sell beverages in glass bottles) between Sunset Cliffs Boulevard to Abbott Street, the businesses were split. Six admitted to not recycling glass bottles, while seven said they do recycle.
“We never throw any bottles away,” said one business owner, pointing to a stack of boxes full of empty beer bottles stored in the corner.
Many businesses said that employees take the bottles to a recycling center, while some gave the bottles to the homeless to sell back.
Those who did not recycle said that there were problems with storage of the empty bottles and issues with landlords, which led to their decision to cease recycling. Others said that if the city provided a bin, they would happily recycle.
But one restaurant off Newport’s beaten path proves that the sky’s the limit when it comes to being green. Ranchos Cocina, 1830 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., is a member of the Green Restaurant Association, a national non-profit environmental organization that helps restaurants and their customers become more environmentally sustainable in ways that are convenient and cost-effective.
Ranchos has completed 20 steps as part of the GRA program, including becoming more water efficient, recycling and composting waste, preventing pollution, purchasing organic and sustainable food items, and using recycled, tree-free biodegradable products.
The GRA is open to restaurants and bars willing to take the initiative and reduce their global impact through conservation and sustainable business practices, proving a support system and guidance on how to do so.
For more on the Green Restaurant Association, visit www.dinegreen.com. For more on city recycling assistance for multi-family complexes, call (858) 694-7000.
In the third installment of this series (Nov. 16), The Beacon will look at corporate efforts that leading the green movement and how they are raising the standards of recycling in San Diego. To view the first article in the series, click on the State of Recycling section on the Beacon homepage