Calabasas meets recycling goals

The city of Calabasas says it has made great strides in having its residents recycle everything from television sets to oil filters.

The Calabasas City Council adopted a resolution earlier this year requiring 75 percent of the city's trash to be recycled by 2012.

"The (Calabasas) landfill is expected to operate until 2020 to 2025 depending on how much we recycle," said Alex Farassati, environmental services supervisor. "If we want the landfill to operate longer, hence keep our trash collection rates stable, we must recycle more."

If the landfill closes, Calabasas residents and businesses will be forced to pay higher trash fees, Farassati said.

The city offers frequent recycling round-ups throughout the year, collecting, electronic waste, paint, batteries and other hard to dispose items.

During the 2007/2008 fiscal year, Calabasas collected 183,090 pounds of mixed electronic waste, surpassing the year's goal of 150,000 pounds and blowing by the previous year's total of 110,000 pounds.

Next year's goal is to collect and recycle at least 200,000 pounds of discared electronics. Ewaste roundups are open to residents and businesses of all cities.

According to reports, the city increased its dry cell battery collection efforts by nearly 25 percent, recycling more than 11,000 pounds last year. Next year's goal is 13,000 batteries.

During the same period, the city collected nearly 7,500 gallons of water-based paint from local areas, a leap from last year's total of 2,000 gallons.

Nearly 1,000 Calabasas and Hidden Hills residents brought in almost 5,000 gallons of paint, as well as 73 car batteries and 58 used oil filters.

Residents from other cities took advantage of the programs. One-hundred sixty-two Westlake Village residents brought in 1,580 gallons of paint, while another 100 residents from Malibu dropped off 960 gallons.

When the paint donations are mixed together they make a grayish color, good for painting homes, schools and gymnasiums, and for covering graffiti, Farassati said. The paint is often sent to Mexico to paint schools and churches.

On a separate front, the city collected and recycled 395 pairs of old eyeglasses that will be cleaned, sorted and shipped to developing countries. The city is in a partnership with Lions International for the eyeglass distribution.

The city also has been advertising a light bulb drop-off and has recycled nearly 1,600 fluorescent and regular light bulbs since February.

"The city of Calabasas is committed to recycling of products hazardous to our local ecosystems," Farassati said.

To make sure the message reaches the younger generation, the city has begun a recycling drawing contest for elementary and middle school students. The drawings are due on Nov. 3.