Recycling Catches On

Recycling paper, bottles and cardboard may seem like a natural move when taking out the trash, but for many Watsonvillians who live in apartments, access to those big blue bins was difficult, if not unavailable.

All of that changed in the past year as Santa Cruz-based Ecology Action and Watsonville city officials instituted a state grant to increase access to recycling in multifamily housing units.

The philosophy was to make recycling as easy as possible. In places like the two-story, 82-unit at Green Valley and Holohan roads, that meant educating residents about what can be recycled and giving them apartment-sized recycling bins.

The typical rolling recycling bins seen in single-family neighborhoods were replaced by wastebasket-sized blue containers that are easy to carry down from second story to the recycling Dumpsters in the parking lot. Other recycling bins were added to the mail room, laundry room and courtyard.

In just a few months, recycling at the complex has increased from 25 to 64 percent, according to Matthew Greenfield of Ecology Action.

"It's great because we've been able to increase the recycling," said Tami Stolzenthaler, the environmental education coordinator for the Watsonville.

Ennio Perez, the manager at Northgate, said the new recycling bins have kept the complex cleaner.

"You can see kids go and recycle," Perez said.

Citywide, recycling bins have been added to 33 complexes—that's 1,780 units—in Watsonville. The grant also funded similar projects across Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties.

"The benefit is less of this goes to the landfill and more can be recycled," said Gabe Gordo, the solid waste division manager for the city of Watsonville.