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 bi-weekly curbside pick-ups via city-provided blue recycling bins. However, complexes such as these are often not equipped to implement such a program.
“If a complex is located in the City of San Diego and would like to have city-provided recycling, the first pre-requisite is that they have city-provided trash,” Grealy said.
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.”
Even if a complex does have city-provided trash service, it still must 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 because typically, depending on the size of the complex, there’s often a cost associated with adding the recycling,” he said. “In many situations, this proves to be a stumbling block ” people don’t expect to pay any more.”
According to Grealy, of the approximately 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.
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 most 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.
Residents themselves can earn a few bucks by taking recyclables to buy-back.
Restaurants and bars that sell beverages in glass bottles typically generate a large amount of trash that could be recycled. George’s at the Cove has been saluted for its recycling program.
Other businesses said that employees take the bottles to a recycling center, while some gave the bottles to the homeless to sell back. Those who do not recycle said that there are problems with storage of the empty bottles. Others said that if the city provided a bin, they would happily recycle.
The Green Restaurant Association is a national nonprofit environmental organization that helps restaurants and their customers become more environmentally sustainable in ways that are convenient and cost-effective. 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 information on the Green Restaurant Association, visit www.dinegreen.com. For information on city recycling assistance for multi-family complexes, call (858) 694-7000.
In the third installment of this recycling series, the Village News will look at corporate efforts leading the green movement and how they are raising the standards of recycling in San Diego.