Council Votes To Bring Recycling To Larger Buildings

By Kurt Helin
Editor

While the purple recycling bins have been a common sight in homes around Long Beach for years, some of the city’s largest buildings go without any recycling.

That’s because the city contracts to have recyclables picked up from all single-family homes, plus apartment or condominium buildings with fewer than 10 units.

However, anything larger than 10 units and the recycling program is up to the discretion of the building owner.

City officials now want to get more of those buildings recycling.

Tuesday night, the City Council voted unanimously to have city staff set up a policy where private recycling companies can contract with the larger apartment buildings in the city. To get them on board, financial incentives will be offered to the owners that have recycling in their buildings.

“To ensure equal availability of recycling for all residents of Long Beach, I am requesting that we work with the city’s permitted private haulers and other interested parties to develop regulations and policies that result in a standardized recycling program for all multi-family unit residents,” said Second District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, one of the co-authors of the ordinance.

The city currently contracts with Waste Management, Inc. to pick up recyclables at an estimated 116,000 residential properties, plus about 6,000 businesses.

However, when a business in one of the city’s larger office complexes called Third District Councilman Gary DeLong’s office asking about how they recycle, the answer was that the property owner made the decision. In this case, everything was going to a landfill.

DeLong said that is one reason he signed on as a co-sponsor of the ordinance.

“I think if we can just get people the information, we will be able to get a lot done,” DeLong said. “People want to recycle, you just make sure they have that option.”

Ninth District Councilman Val Lerch, whose day job is as a property manager for apartment buildings, warned that this will not be an easy process. He said most waste haulers don’t do separation of recyclables, and that it was important to have the Apartment Asociation in on the discussions.

Long Beach city staff touted the city’s recycling rate already, saying that 66% of the solid waste generated in the city is recycled.

That rate ties Long Beach for the highest rate of recycling among the 50 largest cities in the United States.