The Ventura County Public Works Agency’s (VCPWA) Integrated Waste Management Division (IWMD) coordinated with a public agency, a non-profit, and a private company to initiate two major recycling efforts, making it easier for residents and businesses to recycle both plastic bottles and residential/business carpeting. The initiatives underscore the importance of recycling in both waste management and economic development.

The IWMD worked with the City of Oxnard, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), and PinnPack Packaging to:

• Facilitate a low-interest loan of $2 million in State funds from CalRecycle to PinnPack, an Oxnard-based company that produces food packaging for the supermarket and food processing (bakery, deli and produce) industries. The major source of plastics to PinnPack will be CarbonLITE, a recycling business that processes more than two billion PET bottles (the plastic in soda and water bottles) annually. The loan will allow PinnPack to streamline its processes, making it more affordable to use more than 3,000 additional tons of recycled PET plastic. The loan also allows the company to retain 168 jobs at the facility in Oxnard.
• Coordinate a match of the non-profit Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) with the city of Oxnard to launch a system for recycling whole carpets at the Oxnard-owned-and-operated Del Norte Regional Recycling and Transfer station. Previously, only carpet pads were recycled; now, residents and businesses can recycle whole carpets, separate from garbage, for a fee lower than that for dumping garbage at the station.

The two programs will help make recycled products more desirable economically, as well as create jobs and economic activity. They also will help reduce the stream of recyclables that currently are shipped to China for recycling, a practice that expends energy, generates greenhouse gases and diverts economic resources. The PinnPack loan was funded by the state of California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, administered locally through the Ventura County Recycling Market Development Zone, a program administered by VCPWA’s Water and Sanitation Department. The carpet recycling program also was initiated through the Recycling Marketing Development Zone.

“We are proud to announce these two initiatives which not only demonstrate the economic, environmental and social value of investing in recycling,” said Michaela Brown, director of VCPWA’s Water and Sanitation Department. “These initiatives illustrate how important it is to support local efforts that can ultimately have global consequences, such as reduction of greenhouse gases and elimination of potential pollutants from waste streams.”

EVENT INFORMATION:

 WHAT:              Presentation of $2 million check to PinnPack, and launch of carpet recycling program. Attendees include Supervisor John Zaragoza, and officials from CalRecycle, PinnPack, City of Oxnard

 WHERE:           Check presentation: PinnPack, 1151 Pacific Ave., Oxnard

Carpet recycling launch: Del Norte Regional Recycling Station, 111 S. Del Norte Blvd., Oxnard

 WHEN:             Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 11 a.m. PDT (check presentation) Followed by carpet recycling ribbon cutting at 12 p.m. PDT.