City of Gonzales
2023 Summer Reuse, Recycle & Cleanup Day Report
June 30, 2023
Submitted to: Mayor & City Council of the City of Gonzales through the Office of the City Manager On June 24, 2023, the City of Gonzales held its summer community cleanup day event at Fairview Middle School. The event was advertised to residential utility customers through social media and mailers.
The flow of traffic by participants was steady. CalTrans staff tracked the number of participants at 168 vehicles. Fairview Middle School continues to be an ideal location to maintain a safe and visible community event.
The event provides landfill disposal vouchers for refrigerators and freezers at the Johnson Canyon Landfill. Volunteers benefit from being able to direct participants to the nearby landfill to dispose of bulky items such as mattresses and appliances. Rather than unload them into dumpsters, residents can easily push them off into landfill collection piles.
The event focuses on preventing illegal dumping and helping residents “clear the clutter.” It facilitates source separation, recycling, and proper disposal of hazardous waste, trash, appliances, mattresses, scrap metal, rigid plastics, cardboard, and electronic waste.
The event was sponsored by a DOT/Caltrans “Clean California Dump Day” grant. The grant covered the city’s landfill disposal fees and professional staff time for Tri-Cities and Salinas Valley Recycles. This partnership allows Caltrans District 5 to do outreach to further our shared goals of eliminating littering and illegal dumping.
The free “Take it or Leave it” area continues to be a big hit with the community. As anyone who has participated in these
events knows, the reuse area has many great finds. Most of our adult volunteers were surprised to find many useful items for themselves! The event accepts donations for the clothing closet at the Gonzales Community Presbyterian Church.
Blankets and towels are separated and delivered to South County Animal Rescue, where they are needed to care for rescued animals.
A team from Save the Whales was on site to conduct surveys and educate the community about protecting against
stormwater contamination.
From the Desk of: Maury Treleven
Special Projects Consultant,
Gonzales, Greenfield & Soledad
Tri-Cities Disposal & Recycling
831-262-2156 [email protected]
Residents received free and safe disposal of ABOP (Antifreeze, Batteries, Oil, and Paint) materials and sharps containers through Salinas Valley Recycles. Monterey County Environmental Health coordinated a CalRecycle grant-funded oil filter exchange program and provided free oil collection containers.
The Gonzales High School Cross Country and Track teams provided 60 volunteer hours. This group consistently meets its commitments with enthusiastic volunteers who exemplify the spirit of community service. Tri-Cities provided gloves, safety vests, lunch, and ice water. The group will receive a $500 donation from Tri-Cities Disposal & Recycling.
Thank you to our partners Gonzales Unified School District and Trini Zavala, Monterey County Environmental Health, Gonzales Community Presbyterian Church, Save the Whales, Salinas Valley Recycles, and Caltrans District 5. 2023 Summer Event
Diversion/Recycling: 10.31 tons Trash: 7.69 tons Total Collected: 18 tons Diversion Rate: 57% Cars/Trucks: 168 Total CUYD 315+
Oil filter exchange: 24 Vouchers/18 Redeemed Sharps containers: 8 Notes:
• VAN=Collection by Salinas Valley Recycles’ ABOP panel van • DEL=Resident delivered to landfill with free disposal voucher (or item is free to dispose/recycle) • Clothing donations are estimated by approximate volume of carloads/truckloads • “Take it or Leave it” reuse area items are estimated
• Weights for items counted as units are calculated based on weight per unit established by DHEC and CalRecycle tables • Freon appliances include refrigerators, freezers, ACs, and refrigerated water coolers Respectfully submitted,
Maury Treleven
Item Summer
2023 Tons CUYD Fall 2022Tons
Summer 2022
Tons
Average Tons
Per Event Day
2013-2021
Trash 7.69 120 7.95 6.46 7.0
Metal 3.78 80 3.09 3.96 4.6
Mattresses 0 DEL 0.06
2 PCS
0.28 10 PCS
0.25 9 PCS
E-waste 1 20 1 0.70 1.60
Crdbd/Paper 0.63 40 0.37 0.04 0.23
Rigid Plastics 0.75 40 0.66 0.52 0.62
Haz. Mat. (ABOP) 0.83
(1,654 lbs.) VAN 0.56(1,116 lbs.)
0.93 (1,866 lbs.)
1.00 (1,962 lbs.)
Freon Appliances 1.41
13 PCS
DEL 0.50
4 PCS
0.77 7 PCS
1.12 11.25 PCS
Non-freon Appliances 0.53
7 PCS DEL 0.264 PCS
0.20 3 PCS
0.81 5.25 PCS
Clothing Donations &
Reuse Area
1.38 (2,750 lbs.) 15 1.38(2,750 lbs.)
1.73 (3,460 lbs.)
0.83 (1,663 lbs.)
Reuse Area Finds!
Animal crate for South County Animal Rescue (SCAR). Jogging stroller & child’s bike (for our cross country coach and her soon-to-be-born son).