Cities Simplify Recycling Procedure

Recycling just got easier for many Simi Valley and Moorpark residents.

G.I. Rubbish, which handles residential recycling and trash pickup in both cities, is no longer asking residents to separate paper products from the rest of their recycling or arrange recycling with the heaviest items at the bottom of each bin.

Instead, residents can toss all recycling items into one unorganized pile for pickup.

“Hopefully, it’ll encourage residents to recycle more,” said Joe Hreha, a deputy director for Simi Valley’s community services department. “It’s a convenience for the resident.”

G.I. is one of the last companies in Ventura County to make such a shift in the way recycling is collected. Anderson Rubbish, which also collects recycling in Moorpark and Simi Valley, more than a year ago stopped requiring that items be separated.

City-run recycling programs in Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Santa Paula don’t require separation. E.J. Harrison and Sons--which handles recycling in Camarillo, Fillmore, Ojai, Thousand Oaks, Ventura and unincorporated portions of the county--has not required separation for years, a spokeswoman said. G.I. already allows mixed pickups for its Thousand Oaks residents.

Although private haulers may have been thinking of the bottom line, residents did play a key role in the equation. For years, area haulers say, enough residents had ignored sorting instructions that drivers wasted significant time doing the sorting themselves at pickup time.

That practice inflated the number of hours drivers were on the road, eating into the profits companies could derive from shopping around for the best market rates at any given time on presorted aluminum, cardboard, plastic or glass.