Teamwork makes H.B. a leader in recycling

Huntington Beach is second in the county in keeping waste out of landfills, according to an Orange County Grand Jury report.

But some say the state will keep raising the bar.

According to the report, 65% of all waste produced in the city -- including household trash, byproducts from construction, yard clippings and more -- never goes to a landfill. That’s better than the county overall, where only 48% avoids going into landfills that are piling up quickly, and it’s 1% away from the top score.

La Palma scored highest.

Unlike most cities in the county, Huntington Beach is meeting a state mandate of 50%.

Plenty of programs conserve on landfill space, using composting, recycling and other processes. Even individuals who take their own recycling to a facility get their bottles and cans counted in the statistics.

The city’s good rating doesn’t come from one good decision or group, said Bruce Schuman, co-president and chief executive officer of Rainbow Disposal. But his company’s sorting of trash goes further than most others in the area.

“It’s a combination of factors,” he said. “A lot of the other businesses in the city have done good things. Boeing has an active recycling program. There’s Hanson [Aggregates]’s gravel recycling program. It’s all that in combination with what we do at our material recovery facility.”

If the city is doing so well compared to others nearby and is surpassing state mandates, why is it moving to a new system for household trash that calls for residents to sort their own recycling and yard waste? According to Schuman, the answer is that what is good enough now won’t be in a few years.

“The state is looking at putting out a 75% mandate,” he said. “Yes, we’re ahead of the pack, but everybody’s going to have to do something. And this will certainly get us there, since we were enjoying such a great rate without it.”

The grand jury report did have several recommendations to improve the way cities deal with waste: finding more buyers for green waste, finding a better way to dispose of plastic bags and getting city waste managers to better understand county statistics.

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QUESTION OF THE WEEK

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