Duarte : City Workers Recycle Trash

While the city is formulating a curb-side recycling program, in which residents would separate newspapers, glass and aluminum from other trash, city employees already have begun their own recycling program.

For the past month, they have been putting scrap paper into containers on their desks. The containers are dumped into bins, which are picked up by Sunset Environmental Inc. of Irvine. The company pays $50 a ton for white paper and $40 a ton for colored paper.

Although the 40 employees will generate only 10 tons of paper a year, the purpose is to set a good example rather than to raise money, said Karen Nobrega, an administrative assistant who proposed the program. She said that if several businesses in the San Gabriel Valley had similar programs, it would make a difference in diverting waste paper from landfills.

Nobrega said she got the idea when she worked for Orange County three years ago and the 10,000 employees there were doing it.