House prices holding in North Long Beach
House prices holding in North Long Beach
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Long Beach Recycles; It’s a Messy Business
by Caden Choi
The unmistakable neon billboard off the 405 Fwy in Long Beach presents a pictoral graphic of bottles and cans to any passerby through the city. The message is clear: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The city’s Environmental Services Bureau promotes waste reduction among residents and businesses through both a social media campaign (Instagram, @lbrecycles) and in-person education and programming. Through its purple carts, the ESB provides services to 120,000 customers throughout the city.
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Each of these bales of processed recyclables at the Waste Management facility in Orange weighs about a ton. This facility serves eight Orange County cities and overflow recyclables from Long Beach. Most Long Beach recyclables collected weekly from purple bins by trucks go to Potential Industries in Wilmington.

A sorter examines a bale of compressed paper recyclables. “Out of those 600 tons, approximately 30% is non-recyclable material — essentially trash,” says Ricardo Padilla, Material Recovery Supervisor at Waste Management. “I think the biggest issue with recycling is that people don’t know how to recycle correctly. It’s like everyone is on the right track but on the wrong train.” Most processed materials remain in the US. Plastics and Aluminum are reused within the country. The majority of recycled glass is sent across the border but remains nearby. The only materials that are sent overseas to countries like India and Thailand are fiber-based products like cardboard and paper. Imagine your Amazon boxes being reborn as new shoe boxes halfway around the world.

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Long Beach residents might be surprised to find that less common forms of recyclables, such as technology waste, can be broken down and recycled locally. “All your tech waste goes to local companies that will take these machines apart completely,” says Supervisor Padilla. “They’ll sell plastic screens, phone screens, copper to third parties… old DVD players — all that gets reused.”

Padilla motions to a pile of unsorted materials. “Trash never stops,” he says. It costs Waste Management $2500 per minute to sort through all the material. Dalia Gonzalez-Gaeta, Long Beach Customer Relations Officer at Public Works’ Environmental Services Bureau says the city pays for recycling collection by billing its 120,000 customers. For more information regarding the costs of services, go here: cost-of-service study published linked here

Since 2016, Jose Leyva has owned Good Earth Recycling and Leyva Topline Recycling, both within 5-10 minutes of North Long Beach.
This is where people go to recycle metal, glass and plastic they have collected, sometimes by scavenging from purple recycling bins before they are picked up.
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Good Earth Recycling Center (Open Mon-Sat)
2005 Bixby Rd, Lakewood, CA 90712 (562) 490-0072
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Leyva Topline Recycling (Open 7 days)
5674 Cherry Ave, Long Beach, CA 90805 (562) 373-6171 Website

Here’s why aluminum cans are the most sought-after item for recycling.

Long Beach resident Ernesto Garcia, says he has been recycling with his mother, Maria Garcia, since he was little. “It’s always been a part of our lives,” says Garcia. Today, they frequent Good Earth twice a week to supplement their income. “My mom gets her recyclables through the hotel where she works and I work at a school district. Whenever they have events, they give them to us. So we’re lucky to have access [to recyclables].”

Resident Raul Ferrera waits in queue at busy Leyva Recycling. He’s been recycling off and on for the past ten years. Ferrera says he recycles because he is “ very much concerned about reducing my carbon footprint.” Ferrera notes that over the last decade, payment for recyclables from the state has declined by about 20%. “But it’s not all about the money, so I keep recycling,” says Ferrera.
Additional Information:
Sign up for the monthly Long Beach Recycles EcoGuide newsletter: linked here
Virtual City of Long Beach Recycling Tour: MRF tour linked here