![]() "In Pleasanton we have a 100 percent participation rate in our recycling program," he added. Most other cities depend on residents to sort plastics, cans, newspapers and wet garbage into separate containers and then place these at curbside for pickup. While hundreds of California cities and counties are falling short of this year's goal, Pleasanton met the 50 percent objective in 1998 and keeps improving. ![]() We decided it would be best to put in a material recovery facility - what's now the 'picking belt' - and have all of the garbage come into the facility and we would sort it." "The city and Pleasanton Garbage looked at different programs to see what would be the most efficient and economical way to do this recycling work. "That required cities to recycle refuse, with a 50 percent goal set for the year 2000," said Brian Storti, the garbage company's recycling manager. Pleasanton Garbage, in partnership with the city of Pleasanton, set up its Resource Recycling Center in 1991 in response to state Assembly Bill 939. This moves to trailer-trucks that take the non-cyclables to the Allied/BFI landfill on Vasco Road. The rest - the so-called "wet" garbage consisting of table scraps not sent down the disposal, coffee grounds, eggshells, meat bones, even animal wastes - stays on the belt. Even tree branches, wood and other combustibles are sent to a chipper, where they are ground up and used as fuel by electric co-generation plants in Tracy and Woodland. Separated out are mixed office paper (all grades), old corrugated containers, newspapers, aluminum cans, glass containers, tin cans, plastics, metals, so-called "white goods" (such as washing machines, dryers and refrigerators) and wood.Īnything that has a chance of being used again in some form is pulled off the belt and sent to recycling containers. does it for us.Įvery weekday, some 15 sorters pick through garbage that is dumped onto moving belts, an assembly line procedure that handles 100 tons of residential garbage each day. Instead of relying on residents to sort out recyclable materials and possibly make mistakes, the Pleasanton Garbage Co. Yet, that's what Pleasanton does, thanks to an innovative centralized recycling program initiated nine years ago. Tell your out-of-town friends that you toss cans, bottles and newspapers into the same trash can as your garbage and they'll think you missed the environmental revolution of the 1990s. Taking out the trash Taking out the trash (April 21, 2000) Pleasanton company leads the way in recycling
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |