City ramps up business recycling program
BARSTOW — The city of Barstow is working to reinvigorate its business recycling program by taking a look inside the dumpsters of local businesses.
Businesses can volunteer for a free waste audit from the city to determine where they can increase recycling and cut down on trash. In a newly added twist on the business recycling program, a completed audit earns the business a window decal.
The decal is intended to reward businesses that are good stewards of the environment, said Barstow’s Contract and Project Coordinator Belinda Barbour, who handles solid waste issues for the city.
“There’s a huge environmental focus in our community, I know, and I thought it would be nice if residents knew when they went into a business if they were participating in our recycling program,” she said.
Barstow Community Hospital recently became the first local business to sport the new city-issued decal. The hospital went through its waste audit in May and got its results in June, said hospital community outreach director Kristi McCasland. City staff walked through the hospital and examined its trash practices room-by-room, asking questions and eyeballing the contents of trash cans and recycling bins.
The hospital was doing well for the most part, Barbour said. She wrote up some suggestions for improvement, and the city provided the hospital with bottle and can recycling containers to put in its employee break rooms. The hospital employee activities committee now turns in the cans and bottles to recycling centers and uses the deposit money they receive to help fund its activities.
The audit found that the hospital was already recycling its big-ticket items like equipment, wooden pallets and cardboard boxes, as well as contracting with a company to shred and recycle paper documents, McCasland said. It was the smaller items, like bottles and cans, yoghurt containers from the kitchen, and magazines and newspapers, that were adding bulk to the dumpsters.
“I don’t know if it was an education thing, or if we just didn’t have the bins,” she said.
Since the audit, however, McCasland said the hospital has been able to reduce the frequency of its trash pickups, which will ultimately save them money.
Aside from environmental stewardship, the city has a compelling reason to encourage businesses to recycle. State law requires that at least 50 percent of the city’s waste be diverted from landfills. If Barstow fails to meet the standard, it faces hefty penalties of up to $10,000 a day for noncompliance. Barbour pegged Barstow’s current diversion rate at 62 percent.
To get city help in setting up a recycling program or to have a free waste audit conducted, call the city of Barstow at 760-255-5126 or email Belinda Barbour at bbarbour@barstowca.org. For a list of recyclable materials and pick-up times, check the local Verizon phonebook. Phonebooks are available for free at City Hall, 220 E. Mountain View.
Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com
