San Diego residents are starting to receive their new, gray trash bins. But what happens to the old, black and blue ones?
They won’t be going to the landfill, said Andrea Deleon, who works in waste reduction with the city.
“We are doing our due diligence to make sure that we are recycling as much of the material as possible,” she said, adding that the city has received numerous questions from residents curious about the containers.
“I think there’s a lot of interest from the public because they care about their environment,” Deleon said. “When they hear that a whole container is being recycled, that might be a new concept for some. They’re used to recycling their bottles and cans, but, like, a whole new container?”
The process starts with crews collecting the old trash and recycling bins at the curb and sending them to a city yard in Miramar. Once there, the containers are cleaned and all parts are removed. Wheels and metal bars are sent to regional facilities for recycling, the city said.
What’s left: the bins and their lids. The parts are placed into “what we're calling the universal refiner,” Deleon said.
“This is where the bins are actually chipped into smaller chunks, which drops into a chute into a larger container,” she said.
Those smaller chunks of plastic are sent to Rehrig Pacific plants, where they are turned into trays, totes or pallets.
The company, with locations in Los Angeles and Arizona, creates plastic products like carts, crates and pallets that are “100% recyclable at end of life,” according to its website.
Rehrig has recycled damaged bins for San Diego since 2018, according to the city. In July, the City Council agreed to pay the company $64.7 million. Of that amount, $41.5 million was allocated to purchase new bins and $23.2 million was used to have them delivered and to pick up and recycle the old ones, according to a city staff report.
Last month, the city began delivering the new, high-tech bins as part of a citywide effort that modernizes trash collection and charges residents for trash service. The bins have radio-frequency identification chips that are supposed to make it possible for trash trucks to scan and confirm the containers are at the correct address.
City officials said they’ve collected more than 60,000 bins so far. About 750,000 should be recycled by next summer.
