RECYCLING GIVES WASTE NEW PURPOSE.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

The next time you drive down Valencia Boulevard, take a close look at the road - it's made of recycled tires. And that egg carton at the grocery store? It's made of recycled junk mail.

Thanks to the city's recycling efforts, milk jugs, tires and advertising circulars are enjoying new uses while helping turn recyclables into a multimillion-dollar industry.

``This is the big-picture way of making sure recyclables are used all the way around,'' said Lynn Harris, deputy city manager for the Public Works Department. ``We're helping to make markets for recycling.''

In October, the city will launch its long-awaited yard trimmings program that will provide gardening mulch for neighborhood parks and trees. It also plans to offer low-interest loans and tax breaks under a state program to companies that use recyclables as raw materials.

Under state law, the city must divert 50 percent of its waste from landfills by the year 2000. So far, the city is diverting 34.5 percent of its trash from landfills each year.

To meet the statewide goal, the city uses asphalt containing recycled tires to repave streets such as Valencia Boulevard, Soledad Canyon Road and McBean Parkway.

The tires, which make up 18 percent of the asphalt, are taken to a rubber factory where they're frozen and cut up into small pieces. City officials said the tire blend makes for a smoother, quieter road and is competitive with traditional asphalt.

``It'll bend instead of crack and it's also quieter for motorists and for people on the street,'' said Dennis Mak, an assistant city engineer. ``We try to make an effort to use recycled tires.''

The city also recycles Christmas trees, newspapers, plastics and glass as well as junk mail, milk cartons, juice boxes and mixed paper including checkbooks, fax paper and file folders.

The materials are used in a variety of ways. Christmas trees become mulch for community trees and parks and is given away free to the public each Arbor Day. Junk mail becomes toilet paper, paper towels and egg cartons.

By using recycled products, ``we create more raw materials for those markets,'' Harris said, citing the motto ``reduce, reuse, recycle.''

With the introduction of the yard trimmings program next month, the city expects to divert an additional 10 percent of waste from landfills and will add a compost program at Canyon Country Park, where grass and tree branch clippings will be converted into mulch. The city eventually hopes to expand the program, which is expected to save $8,000 per year in disposal fees.

``We will recycle and reuse every bit of open space,'' Harris promised.

The city also plans to expand the market for recyclables by implementing a recycling market development zone, one of 44 areas statewide which offer low-interest loans and tax breaks to businesses that recycle waste.

The state has earmarked $40 million for the zones, which encompass commercial strips and businesses in the industrial parks in Santa Clarita.