A Dirty Job, but Golding’s Glad to Do It

Last year, San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding donned a wet suit and plunged into the surf to illustrate the danger lobster traps can pose to bathers. On Friday, Golding went still further in her quest to raise the public consciousness about issues of import: She sorted garbage.

As a gaggle of reporters looked on, Golding slipped into a rubber jumpsuit and joined a team of workers sifting through piles of refuse at a county waste-disposal site.

Her purpose? To determine what recyclable materials lurk within the tons of garbage San Diegans throw away each day.

“Here’s something for Steve,” one worker said, holding up a half-loaf of mildewed bread and a plastic bag of what appeared to be noodles in spoiled tomato sauce.

“Oh boy, Steve are you going to share?” another worker yelled.

Plowing Through Garbage

The workers, members of a consultant team, were plowing through rotting piles of garbage at the Sycamore Landfill near Santee to document waste material by type and weight as part of San Diego County’s ambitious recycling program.

The program eventually could require residents and businesses to separate aluminum cans, glass, paper and other recyclable materials from the rest of their trash before placing it on the curb for pickup. Its goal is to reduce by nearly one-third the amount of waste that winds up in county landfills.

“Before we can develop viable markets to capture and recycle the region’s trash, we have to know what types and categories of waste we’re dealing with,” said Golding, the board of supervisors’ leading champion of recycling. “Our waste composition and market study is a key component of the county’s plan to achieve a 30% reduction of waste to our landfills by 1992.”

The consultants’ findings will be used to develop programs and markets necessary to divert recyclable materials from the county’s disposal facilities, Golding said.

The yearlong study, which began in late July, is being done by Recovery Sciences. The firm will take three seasonal samplings to note any differences in trends, according to Roger Walsh, director of the county’s Department of Public Works.

The crew of seven workers frequently joke as they sort through a randomly selected, 150-pound pile of waste, putting finds into bins filled with aluminum, paper and glass.

‘Not a Glamorous Job’

“Everybody becomes very callous when doing something like this,” said Ellyn Hae, Recovery Sciences vice president. “It’s not a glamorous job, but all of the workers have an interest in the environment and we know the importance of our research. We do have fun, too.”

Most of the crew, like Jill Friedman, 24, of Los Angeles, are recent graduates of UC San Diego. Friedman said she doesn’t mind digging through “other people’s trash” because it gives her an opportunity to expand her knowledge of environmental issues, an interest that developed in a class she took at UCSD.

“I’m astounded by the stuff companies throw away that is new and still usable,” Friedman said. “We’ve come across new glassware, lavalieres, tools and other good stuff.”

Hae said the crew also comes across things that are dangerous, like used syringes and even a load they thought was filled with asbestos. “Generally we don’t have a problem, and we almost feel invincible because of our protective clothing,” she said. “When we get playful, we even jump around in the garbage.”

The crew wears impermeable rubber clothing made of tyvec--a plastic reinforced by rubber--along with knee-high boots and gloves.

According to Golding, the Sycamore landfill as well as those in Otay Mesa and Ramona each have about 10 years of use left at the existing rates of use; the San Marcos landfill has about three years of use left.

“San Diego is running out of options for dumping trash,” Golding said. “Today only 10% of trash is being recycled, yet there are studies indicating that approximately 50% of the waste disposed of annually can be recycled.”

Officials hope the program will triple the county’s 10% recycling figure within five years, saving nearly 1.5 million cubic yards of space in landfills and cutting trash-disposal costs by about $4.4 million annually.

Such conservation measures are necessary to counter increases in population and the amount of solid waste--two forces that are taxing landfills at an alarming rate.

The county’s nine-point recycling plan--of which the current study is the first part--includes a variety of voluntary steps and recycling education programs, although county officials have indicated that some of the provisions may become mandatory within several years. It also includes a change in county purchasing policies to encourage the use of recyclable materials, a review of possible ordinances to restrict the use of nonbiodegradable packaging materials and an expansion of existing recycling programs at county garbage-disposal facilities.

High Initial Cost

Over the next four years, the plan would cost about $1.8 million annually, with $1 million of that devoted to incentives to develop and operate model residential and commercial recycling programs. However, county officials hope that, by 1991, savings realized through the conservation of landfill space will exceed the recycling program’s cost.

George Eowan, state director of the waste management board, said an integrated waste management program like the one San Diego County has embarked on is a step in the right direction. “This is the answer for the impending solid-waste disposal problems large areas are going to suffer from if they don’t begin to look at waste reduction efforts. Recycling is a critical component.

“The technology is here to avoid (the shortage of dump sites), we just need a public-private partnership,” Eowan said.

Recycling, officials agreed, is no good if a market for use of the recovered material does not exist.

“That’s why we won’t start recycling until the viability and market availability of recycled material has been proven,” Golding said. “Otherwise our $100,000 study is sure to fail, as have other communities’ when they did not inform residents of the benefits of recycling.”