Free recycling in Arcata again
[Press Release]
The Arcata Community Recycling Center’s CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) accepts a wide variety of discards, both everyday recyclables and those that require special handling.
Beginning July 1, 2011 ACRC is reducing the facility fee for drop off of these materials to zero (the current fee is five dollars per visit). Certain materials, such as electronic waste, appliances, and fluorescent tubes, will still require a small fee to cover their safe handling.
Drop off recycling of mixed paper (newspaper, magazines, cardboard, and office pack) and containers (glass bottles and jars, aluminum cans and formed containers, steel cans, and #1-#7 plastic bottles and containers) will now be offered as a free service.
The CHaRM is located in Arcata at Tenth and N Streets. The facility is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For questions about recycling please call 445-4321 or visit arcatarecycling.org.
Leave a comment
Recent Comments
 | Anonymous on A Performance Review for Phil… |
| i can T stop thinkin… on BLIND ITEM | |
| Anonymous on Hank Larrabee – Humboldt Count… |
| Anonymous on Hank Larrabee – Humboldt Count… |
 | Anum08 on Another “Golden rule… |
 | Adobe crack on Another “Golden rule… |
 | Hassan001 on Another “Golden rule… |
Top Posts & Pages
The Humboldt Herald 
Places where fluorescents are sold (like Ace) will recycle them free of charge, BTW.
That’s B.S. I trash everything now because this ‘recycling’ is a total scam. Boycott it and trash it.
I do not get this as news, because Humboldt Sanitation in McKinleyville has been doing this forever.
Good to know, never really got the whole five dollars to get in thing… but hey they got to pay operating costs.
When is someone gonna make a mixed recyclable drop off, where you can just drop of all recyclable bottles cans and containers, and they run them through the sorting machine. I think this would encourage lots more people to recycle. I know Arcata had this program going for their curbside pickup, not sure if its still in existence. When I asked at Humboldt San the lady started yelling at me saying how they are a Mom and Pop operation and don’t have that option and cant afford it…….. Sore subject…. Anyway to keep recyclables out of the landfill is a good thing I think. And yes “oliver” I have heard lot of opinions on how recycling is a sham, but we live in a closed system, called Earth, and will eventually run out of places to put waist and places to extract resources.
I often am short on time and don’t necessarily care about getting the small CRV money back, and would much rather be able to drop off mixed bag, with revenue generated from the CRV donated on put toward facility maintenance.
Actually, Humboldt Sanitation does not recycle 1 through 7. They just do PET and HDPE. And they don’t do all PET.
Im glad it’s free (again). The whole CRV tax was supposed to pay for this. How many fives am I gonna get back? What changed to make it free (again)?
It was always free for Arcata residents who had garbage pickup. They just had to separate into all paper, and all containers- simple, and it would be picked up curbside. I live outside the City limits though, so had to pay $5 to haul it to their location.
The McKinleyville recycling is in the dark ages. I use their dump but you still have to separate every type of plastic, every color of glass, types of paper, etc. I don’t have time for that. The two-type system at the other centers greatly simplifies this, and I will be back to Arcata’s soon.
The Eureka dump and recycling are great as well, if you are going that way, and they will take some fluorescent bulbs for no charge from private citizens (not businesses, I think) and the amount is limited. I dropped off 6 last week.
And by the way, Capri Sun like juice bags and food tainted paper such as fast food bags are not recyclable. We get thousands of those through the sorting line.
Food bags are contaminants because of food and grease remnants. Pizza boxes are recyclable if you rip off any stained portion.
Waxy cardboard and frozen food outer boxes are also contaminants. Shiny cardboard is recylable as long as it is not coated.
Capri-Sun? That’s sad.
We live in Eureka and like our garbage company – Recology – service is great and they’re an employee owned business but we strongly disagree with the Eureka City Council decision to contract with Willits Solid Waste. If ACRC closes 35 people lose their living wage jobs and15 of those workers are Eureka residents. If it won’t hurt Recology we’re thinking of taking our recycling to Arcata for processing at ACRC. We’re in Arcata often enough that we don’t have to make an extra trip. Maybe we’ll save some jobs. Does anyone know if this practice would affect Recology and is the Arcata recycling center free for people not living in Arcata?
Mr. Holmquist, how clean do cans have to be, yogurt containers, etc. Is rinsing enough? Aluminum foil with lasagne stuck to it? Is a clean fast food bag still considered to be contaminated because there used to be loose fries in it, for example? Just wonder how picky you we have to be, what to throw in the garbage. How can we help you out?
Oily stuff like lasagna would make a mess. I’ve heard you are supposed to collect washed foil and ball it up.
Well you don’t really have to wash out your stuff. Stuff like milk jugs stink like hell, but still you don’t have to. It’s your choice. Yeah it’s a good practice to collect the aluminum foil. Plastic grocery bags go back to the store too.
I thought food on items made them unrecyclable. Why then do they not want pizza cartons with food stuck to them. Maybe because they can’t be washed? So those sour cream containers can have a little sour cream stuck to them and they are okay? I have a hard time removing dog food from cans. What about tops on bottles and jars? You want those removed, right?
To answer some of the questions here…
We’ve dropped the $5 fee in conjunction with dropping the $50/ton fee charged to the franchise haulers as part of our annual rate adjustment, which is based on commodity market rates. Like the stock market, these commodities fluctuate.
Our drop-off facility in Arcata, as well as HWMA’s, accepts dual-stream mixed recyclables (containers in one bin, paper fibers in another).
The CRV fee you pay on many beverage containers is not a tax, it is a fee that is returned to you when you recycle the container. It does not fund, or subsidize our business functions.
In general, the cleaner your recyclables are, the better. With that said, a quick rinse of containers prior to throwing it in your bin is all that is necessary. We would rather have your food contaminated containers than not at all. Food contaminated paper however is NOT recyclable due to the oils contained in them. Any paper that has touched food should be discarded or composted (if possible).
It is helpful if you remove tops from bottles and jars, but not absolutely necessary.
Our processing staff are subjected to a lot of things that should not be put in your curbside bin like sharps (syringes), dead animals and their waste, baby diapers, pharmaceutical and bio-hazardous waste, and muriatic acid fluid still in the container, which eats through the protective gloves and skin. Please keep in mind that there are human beings dealing with this stuff.
visit our website at http://www.arcatarecycling.org/home.html or call us at 445-4321 for any other questions.
Mike Seeber
Operations Director
Arcata Community Recycling Center
Very complete answer. Thanks.
Not a complete answer to me Mike,
The CRV fee you pay to stores is basically a bum tax.
Open a yard by the ACRC where I can simply “donate” my load of “refundable” material to the needy. They can sort through it for me and collect the money from ACRC.
Otherwise, how did I go from getting $5 (not even close to the CRV) to paying $5 (in addition to the CRV)? It seems dubious to claim market forces since the CRV is a fixed cost to the consumer.
What is ACRC doing with the CRV if I do not receive it? Does the store that collected it from me give it to ACRC so you can pay the people who sort, etc? Is that a variable you forecast in your decision to stop charging?
I think you should have a place where I could “donate” my CRV material to those who need the money..
Don’t get me wrong, I am glad it went back to “free” but that’s not being 100% honest now is it?
I’m not going to debate what you call the CRV, you can take that up with the state of California who mandates the program. If you wish to donate your CRV, you can cash it in and give the money to the needy; we are not in business to provide social services.
The $5 fee we charge(d) was to cover the costs associated with processing non-CRV materials, so you’re comparing apples to oranges.
ACRC is given a small percentage of unclaimed CRV by the state based on averages that they determine is in our tonnage. This is called an “incentive payment”, which compensates us for providing the service, otherwise it would be a business function that does not cover the cost of labor, transport, processing etc.CalRecycle agents were here last week doing sampling from our drop-off materials to determine how much unclaimed CRV is “dumped”. The majority of the unclaimed CRV is retained by the state to fund recycling programs (grants). If you do not agree with them doing this, simply cash in your CRV and get your money back.
The store that collected the CRV to you turns it over to the state. The state reimburses us for the CRV we pay out when we submit a claim form based on our pay-out receipts. Believe me, it is all very well tracked and audited by CalRecycle. You can contact them if you have further questions on their methodology.
Now that’s a complete answer.
Thanks Mike
You’re welcome!