CITY TO PROMOTE RECYCLABLES AT GROCERY STORES.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

Don't throw away that juice box just yet. It could become your wedding invitation later.

Juice boxes and milk cartons - among the newest additions to the city's recycling program - are the subject of a new advertising campaign that will hit local grocery stores next month.

Bolstered by a $4,150 grant, the city plans to promote the recycling of milk cartons and aseptic packaging - drink boxes with aluminum foil liners - by placing signs near the containers in grocery stores throughout the city.

``This is just going to heighten it from the point of purchase,'' said Hazel Joanes, the city's waste management coordinator. ``There'll be no question. They'll receive information at home and when they buy it at the store.''

The grant was awarded two weeks ago by Tetra Pak Inc., a Swedish-based aseptic packaging manufacturer. The city applied for the grant in December after two employees in the Waste Management Division encountered the grant application on the Internet.

``We said, `Free money through the Internet,' '' said Joanes.

Tetra Pak officials said they honored the city because of its wide-ranging recycling education program, which also employs fliers, print ads and news releases besides signs in grocery stores.

``They were anxious to get the word out in a variety of ways,'' said Debbi Dodson, the company's California recycling coordinator. ``It's a nice comprehensive public education program. They're trying to educate residents in a variety of different ways.''

According to the Aseptic Packaging Council, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association, the products are transformed into everything from tissue paper to fine writing paper and even fuel.

The drink boxes are first shredded and rinsed before undergoing a process called hydrapulping that recovers paper, plastic and aluminum foil fibers. The paper is turned into paper products while the plastic and foil residue is made into plastic building materials. Eventually, the materials return to supermarkets, homes, schools and offices.

In California, about 794,172 households recycle aseptic packaging. In Santa Clarita, about 40,000 households recycle the products, Dodson said.

The city began recycling aseptic packaging in February after technology and markets were found to recycle the products.

Joanes said that recycling the materials will reduce the amount of solid waste generated by the city and prolong the lives of landfills.

``That gets into the landfill and we're trying to conserve landfill space,'' she said. ``We're giving people a choice. You can buy it and recycle it, too.''

Under a 1990 state law, cities are required by the year 2000 to cut in half the amount of waste sent to landfills.

Since the city's curbside recycling program began in 1991, it has recycled more than 32,000 tons of waste. The program allows residents to recycle everything from junk mail and phone books, to checkbooks, fax paper and file folders.