As the landfills in Southern California begin to reach their maximum capacity, recycling has become an important part in controlling the amount of waste buried into the ground. The closest landfill to Pepperdine is directly through Malibu Canyon near A.E.Wright Middle School and reached its capacity more than five years ago. Now non-recyclable materials must be hauled out to Sun Valley, Calif., for dumping.
But for the past nine years Pepperdine has been partnered with Crown Disposal Co., a mixed processing plant, to recycle as much of Pepperdine’s waste as possible.
The Sun Valley-based recycling plant recycles up to 80 percent of all waste that goes through their system — more than 1,700 tons a day. But any waste that is not recycled must be sold to the neighboring landfills, two of which are already closed.
“Crown Disposal is a really great company because they have an economic reason to recycle,” said Rick Leach, Director of Campus Services Facility Management and Planning. “It keeps the heat on to finding new ways to recycle,”
Recycling has always been a hot topic on campus as many student groups have tried to start recycling programs with little success.
While students have been worried about their use of their extensive trash, Pepperdine has been taking the lead by recycling all of the materials thrown in the garbage. The Crown Disposal’s system takes the discarded trash, including aluminum, food, metals, plastics, cardboard, paper, cement and landscaping waste, and put it through their sorting process, sorting 5-7 tons of material in five minutes.
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