Benefits of Recycling
The State of California has emphasized and mandated recycling programs since 1989. Today, most people know that recycling plays an important role in managing the garbage generated in homes and businesses, and that it reduces the need for landfills and incinerators. Many environmental and economic benefits are derived by supplying industry with recycled materials, rather than virgin resources extracted from forests and mines.
Using recycled instead of raw materials saves energy, conserves scarce natural resources, and reduces emissions of greenhouse gases and other dangerous air and water pollutants. Recycling is far more than a local waste management strategy; it is also an important strategy for improving efficiencies and reducing environmental impacts inherent in industrial production.
Key benefits include:
- Prevents emissions of many air and water pollutants.
- Supplies valuable raw materials to industry with less environmental impact and cost.
- Stimulates local economic development and growth of green technologies.
- Saves energy.
- Reduces the need for new landfills.
- Reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
- Creates jobs.
- Conserves resources for future generations.
Also, recycling is a growth industry with many kinds of business opportunities, including collection, processing, manufacturing and inventing new technologies. Currently, Eureka benefits from several local small businesses and solid waste recycling firms serving the local recycling industry, creating jobs and improving our economy.
Please read below to learn more about some of our more popular Eureka waste reduction programs and how to access them. These include:
1.Residential Curbside Recycling.Through this program, you may recycle most of your disposable household items right at your curb. Please call the City Garbage Company at 707-442-5711 to request this convenient service. The collection process utilizes a two (2) stream system whereby your recyclables are sorted into 2 separate groups. The first group includes containers such as glass, metals, plastics etc., and the second group includes fiber such as newspaper, magazines, cardboard, etc. The two-stream collection system corresponds with our new local two stream processing facility in Samoa across the bay. Recyclable materials accepted curbside include:
- aluminum cans,
- glass bottles and jars
- plastic containers and packaging
- plastic bags (utilizing “bag in bag” storage method)
- bi-metal cans, tin cans, aerosol cans
- newspaper, magazines, phone books, catalogues
- junk mail
- white paper, colored paper
- cardboard
2.Eureka Community Recycling Center The Center is located at the Eureka Transfer Station at 1059 West Hawthorne Street in Eureka. They will take most of your recyclable/reusable items, including all of those items collected under our curbside collection program (see above), and they will pay you for all of your CRV redemption value containers. They also take your old used tires and white goods such as large appliances and e-waste such as old computers for a nominal processing fee.Please call them for more information at 707-442-2541.
3.Recycling Buy Back Center The Buy Back Center is located at Eureka Community Recycling Center at 1059 West Hawthorne Street in Eureka. The Center will pay you for all of your CRV redemption value containers.Please call them for more information at 707-442-2541.
4.Neighborhood Recycling “Drop Sites” The City currently maintains two neighborhood drop-off recycling facilities. These are located at (1) near the Armory on Russell Street near the Sequoia Park Zoo, and (2)at the Municipal Auditorium at 12th and E Streets. These locations accept newspaper, plastics, aluminum and glass. There is no fee to drop off recyclables. The drop sites divert a significant amount of recyclable material from our waste stream, and assist the City in meeting our State and local recycling responsibilities.
5.Backyard Composting Bins These convenient bins can be purchased for approximately $42.00 at the Eureka Community Recycling Center at 1059 West Hawthorne Street in Eureka. These bins work great for composting nearly all of your household food waste, and it produces an incredible soil amendment for your garden! Please call the Recycling Center for more information at 707-442-2541.
6.Hazardous Waste Collection Facility The Household Hazardous Waste collection facility is located at the Eureka Transfer Station (near the Recycling Center) at 1059 West Hawthorne Street in Eureka. They will take most of the hazardous wastes typically found in your home such as fluorescent light bulbs, paint containers, cleaning product containers, motor oil and more. Please call them at 707-441-2005 for more information.
7.Green Waste Recycling The Green Waste collection facility is located at the Eureka Transfer Station at 1059 West Hawthorne Street in Eureka. The cost of disposing your greenwaste is roughly half the price of disposing it into our landfill. Greenwaste includes grass, shrubs, branches, unpainted wood and pallets, Christmas trees (no flocking or ornamentation please) and more. Please call the Humboldt Waste Management Authority at 707-268-8680 for more information.
8.Old Town/Downtown/Henderson Center Recycling Bins Providing additional opportunities for public recycling is a principal component in our efforts to increase the City’s waste diversion tonnage. In 2003, the City implemented a street side program which placed approximately 30 recycling bins at 25 locations in Old Town, Downtown, Henderson Center and the Sequoia Park and Zoo. The bins allow recycling of glass, plastic and aluminum containers. The recycling bins are located near existing City garbage cans, and are collected about 3 times per week, or as needed. The bins were purchased through a State grant provided by the CA Integrated Waste Management Board.
9.Public Schools Education Program The City has a long standing partnership with the Eureka City School District to facilitate a recycling educational program within the district’s elementary schools.The program allows trained educators and student mentors to visit schools in the district, and involves school assemblies, take-home literature, on-site recycling days, and service learning activities designed to promote recycling, reuse, and food waste reduction.The program also provides support and information to assist the schools in achieving their own on-going, sustainable recycling program.The City has contracted with the Recycling Education Team at the Arcata-Eureka Recycling Center to assemble the staffing and provide training necessary to facilitate this school program.
Other Programs
- ·Sequoia Park and Zoo Composting Project The City currently composts nearly all of the animal and food waste at our local zoo through an on-site composting facility. The zoo, one of the oldest accredited zoos in the nation, is located at 3414 W Street near the southern city limits of Eureka.
- ·Recycling Task Force The City participates on a regional committee of representatives from the County and each incorporated city in the County. The Committee meets monthly, and works collectively to develop programs and ideas for promoting recycling, reuse and other measures designed to comply with the State’s AB 939 requirements. Current projects include construction/demolition recycling guidelines, mercury thermometer exchange program, zero waste management policies, update of the County Integrated Waste Management Plan, shopping guides for recycled products, sustainable behavior techniques, and other projects.
- Regional Food Waste Diversion Facility The City of Eureka has teamed with the Humboldt Waste Management Authority for a feasibility study on a regional composting and food waste diversion facility. The development of a regional composting facility will greatly increase Eureka’s ability to divert solid waste from the waste stream, and assist the City in meeting the State’s ambitious diversion goals. The facility is intended to divert organic materials from Eureka’s waste stream. The project proposes to construct one or more in-vessel digesters in the Humboldt Bay Area for the anaerobic breakdown of food waste that is generated at local restaurants, schools, festivals and institutions. Methane generated from the process will provide power to the digester machinery, creating a very energy efficient system.
