Cleaning Up, The Green Way
concord, concord disposal services, contra costa county, garaventa enterprises,
Concord is one of a growing number of U.S. cities that uses single-stream recycling, a method that cuts down on landfill use by as much as 40 percent.
The environmentally friendly form of recycling was introduced to Concord residents by the same company that’s been picking up the city’s trash since the 1930s – Garaventa Enterprises.
With single-stream recycling, customers can put all their recyclables together in one bin, including plastics, for pickup. It encourages people to recycle because it’s easy and less confusing.
Garaventa started out with a one-truck garbage disposal service for the town of Concord.
Today, Garaventa Enterprises, through its Concord Disposal Services, picks up the city’s residential and commercial garbage and operates Contra Costa County’s largest recycling center. Garaventa Enterprises is one of the few remaining family-owned garbage and recycling companies in Northern California.
In 2007, the company broke ground on the $15 million Mount Diablo Recycling Center. The facility will recycle more than 9,000 tons of paper, glass, wood, metal and green waste annually.
“Mount Diablo Recycling will process all recyclables single stream, utilizing new state-of-the-art, ultra-efficient equipment, which will provide better and more convenient service to our customers and decrease the amount of waste going into the landfill,” says Joe Garaventa, chief operating officer for the company.
The company, which was recycling bottles and rags back in the ’30s and ’40s, consistently scores high marks with Concord residents.
For the past several years, the city of Concord has asked residents to rate the city’s services, including police, parks, recycling and garbage and permitting. Citizens have ranked garbage pick-up and recycling at the top of all city services for five years in a row.
The family, who still lives and works in Concord, has also been very active in the community and has long supported a number of civic and charitable causes.
Story by Sheila Burke
