City Attorney Mike Aguirre proposed an ordinance today that would make it mandatory to provide recycling in offices and apartment complexes, saying that he hoped to reduce pressure on the Miramar Landfill, which is projected to close within six years.
The city of San Diego offers free trash and recycling services to residents of single-family homes. But it doesn’t offer recycling pickup to more than 100,000 units in apartment complexes, condos and multi-family dwellings. Offices also aren’t included.
The city estimates residents without curbside recycling discard nearly 100,000 tons of bottles, aluminum cans and paper each year. More than half the waste tossed into the city’s landfill at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar is recyclable.
Aguirre’s proposal calls for apartment complexes with up to 100 units to begin recycling by January 2009; apartment complexes with more than 100 units would have to start by January 2008. They’d have to recycle plastics, paper, aluminum, glass and cardboard.
Offices would also have a staggered timeframe to provide on-site recycling services, with the last deadline being 2010.
We examined this issue in a story last July.
We’ll have more for you later today.