L.A. Adds Curb-Side Recycling Area

Residents of Rancho Park, Beverlywood, Cheviot Hills and parts of Westchester will be able to recycle their cans, bottles and newspapers by leaving them at the curb starting this week, city officials said.

The voluntary program allows households to sort their recyclable trash into plastic bins that will be collected by special trucks on garbage day.

The trucks will also pick up separate bundles or bags of newspapers.

“By making it easy and convenient to recycle, we’re helping the residents of this area do their part for the environment,” said City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, one of the backers of the trial program.

Residents of the 11th Council District, represented by Councilman Marvin Braude, have had a similar program for several years, but the new service expands curb-side recycling to 60,000 more households, including about 5,000 each in the districts represented by Yaroslavsky and Ruth Galanter.

Its sponsors hope to gradually expand the service to other neighborhoods until it is offered citywide in 1991.

“At current rates of trash disposal, the city will run out of landfill space in just a few years,” said Edward J. Avila, president of the Board of Public Works. “Recycling is a simple but very effective way for residents to participate in the solution to the garbage crisis.”

Sanitation trucks began dropping off the plastic bins, which cost the city $5.25 each, at homes in the new area starting last Friday.

Specially equipped trucks, each costing about $80,000, are to pick up the refuse once a week and take it to one of four recycling plants, where it will be separated mechanically for resale.