Manteca’s recyclables are no longer being landfilled.
Better yet, the city is now accepting more items for recycling in blue carts than they did a few years back when they had to ban a number of items due to contracted vendors not being able to find recyclers willing to accept them.
The City of Manteca’s solid waste recycling trucks now have a dedicated lane at the Lovelace Transfer Station.
That is allowing truckloads to be dumped with various recyclables separated and garbage — essentially items that can’t be recycled — sent to the Austin Road landfill.
The biggest change will be mixed paper, glossy paper, newspapers, magazines, and paper bags can be placed in blue carts.
Paper board and cartons — such as cereal boxes and shoe boxes — will now be accepted along with corrugated cardboard.
Plastics bags — grades one through seven that were never accepted previously — are also good to go in the blue carts.
The metal collection is also more robust with aluminum foil joining tin cans and aluminum cans.
Glass bottles and glass jars are again being recycled.
As are all California Redemption Value (CRV) containers.
The flyer listing recyclable items that appears along with this story on Page A8 will be included in November utility bills being mailed to City of Manteca customers.
“We appreciated people’s patience as we worked to get back to the old recycling ways,” said Avneet Mahil who serves as deputy public works director overseeing solid waste.
The city started the new recycling sorting Oct. 1.
They have spent the past several weeks working out the bugs.
Mahil assured the days of recyclables being buried are over.
A new contract allowed the city’s recyclables to go to vendors that are in a position to put them to use.
Recycling nationwide took a big hit last decade after China — as well as developing countries in Asia — stopped taking shiploads of containers loaded with recyclables that had an excessively high contamination rate.
The countries were essentially being overrun with garbage from the United States they had to dispose of, often in ways that damaged the environment.
In the ensuing years, efforts have been underway to increase or establish new markets in this country to use the recyclables.
Solid waste experts indicated tariffs are also expected to increase the demand and viability for various recycled materials as the trade charges have made recyclable materials more competitive, and in a growing number of instances, cheaper for use in new products.
The city is planning to launch an extensive community outreach education program when 2026 rolls around. It will even include information booths at community events as well as making appearances before larger groups such as the Del Webb community organization when they are invited to do so.
The city also will be adding a compliance officer that will work with residents to make sure they are placing the right items in the blue cart.
Eventually, if problematic customers consistently don’t comply with the rules, the city will resort to fines.
It should be noted the “cleaner” blue carts are when it comes to being devoid of items that can’t be recycled, the lower the sorting related labor costs are.
That, in turn, will work toward making sure rate increases beyond 2027 can stay as low as possible.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com