Santa Clarita will be the first City in the
nation to pilot a diaper recycling program for its residents.
Beginning in November, 500 local residents from three preselected
areas of the City will recycle their diapers for six months.
Santa Clarita residents currently enjoy weekly
curbside services for trash collection, recycling collection
and yard waste collection and recycling. A free household hazardous
waste collection program, free annual, curbside Christmas tree
pickup and recycling, free bulky item collections and a host
of education programs are already part of the many services
provided to residents as part of the City's Environmental Services
Program
The diaper recycling program is the result
of patented technology provided by Knowaste. Through their process,
diapers are collected curbside, brought to a processor currently
sited in Sun Valley where they are sanitized and treated, then
separated and removed for reuse in products such as plastic
wood, roof shingles, vinyl wood sidings and even wallpaper.
The pilot program is free to the 500 families
who will help the City decide the program's value and future
for the community. Funding for the pilot program came about
as a result of a State grant procured by State Assemblyman George
Runner in the amount of $250,000. The City matched the grant
with another $250,000 to get the pilot program off the ground.
Knowaste, Santa Clarita and Blue Barrel Disposal also contributed
to the implementation of the program.
Disposable diapers could take up to 500 years
for a single diaper to decompose and nearly 20 billion disposable
baby diapers are deposited in landfills in this country every
year. For those concerned about the environment, diaper recycling
is one way to reduce the amount of trash going to landfills
over the long haul.
Almost since cityhood, Santa Clarita has positioned
itself as an environmentally-conscious city. City and community
leaders vehemently opposed and ultimately won the fight to prevent
a large-scale landfill from being constructed in Elsmere Canyon,
located at the end of San Fernando Road near SR 14.
It is the goal of the Santa Clarita City Council
to ultimately divert as much as 75% of the City's trash from
landfills and instead reduce trash and recycle more items.
When the pilot program is over next Spring,
evaluations will be made regarding the future for implementing
a citywide diaper recycling program. Look for the results of
the pilot program on the City's website.
