Duarte Council Votes to Launch Recycling for
Multi-Family Dwellings in July
DUARTE, CA, April 17, 2012 – Beginning in July, residents of Duarte’s 62 multi-family dwellings will do what the City’s single family households have been doing since the 1980’s – recycling. The Duarte City Council recently voted unanimously to approve implementation by Burrtec Waste Services of mandatory recycling for all eligible 5-unit and larger multi-family dwellings in the City.
To relieve property owners of any burden associated with program design and implementation, the City of Duarte, together with Burrtec Waste Services, has designed a multi-family recycling program that can be tailored to each individual site while ensuring each property’s compliance with State requirements.
Over the next three months, Burrtec will be distributing bi-lingual educational materials and conducting on-site property surveys detailing various recycling options, many of them highlighting a cost savings. It is estimated that 50% of the current multi-family customers will realize a cost savings as a result of the mandated recycling program. The types of information that will be disseminated includes door hangers, posters, newsletters, letters, news articles and website articles detailing the ease and benefits of the program.
Every eligible building will be provided with a recycling container, individual in-unit containers for tenants/owners and bi-lingual educational materials. Burrtec will also offer on-site resident education program for 16 unit or larger complexes detailing the location of the recycling bin, acceptable recyclable materials, how to use and store the indoor recycling container and familiarize residents with educational door hangers, and posters.
A listing of recyclables, including all beverage containers, plastic, paper, glass, cardboard, and metal products, will appear on the front of both the recycling bin and the in-door container. Only specialized recycling bins, designed to prevent scavenging and litter, will be used in conjunction with the program.
The mandate re-initiates a program first introduced as voluntary in 2009 when the City applied for and was awarded a $57,500 Cal Recycle grant to fund and promote the costs associated with launching a citywide multi-family recycling program. Duarte’s Cal Recycle grant covers the costs of educational materials, collection, recycling containers, bins and some minor personnel costs. The program, then only in its earliest outreach stage, was interrupted for 18 months by the ongoing state budget crisis. In the interim, the California Legislature signed into law AB 341 requiring CalRecycle to increase the diversion of solid waste from the currently required statewide level of 50% to 75% by 2020. To achieve this goal, the new law requires all multi-family complexes of 5 units or more to begin recycling by July 1, 2012.
In 1988, Duarte became the first city in the San Gabriel Valley to introduce residential curbside recycling. In 2011, Duarte residents diverted over 1,153 tons of their recyclables. For more information, call Burrtec Waste Services at 1-866-287-7832 or the City of Duarte (626) 357-7931, ext. 221.
