Feb 4 - Salinas Mayor Sees New Jobs from Recycling

Salinas television news station KION-TV reports that hundreds of new jobs have been created as a result of increased recycling by farmers along California's central coast, an effort supported by Californians Against Waste and businesses and agencies throughout the state.

Farmer Paul Frost at Pacific Gold Farms and Recycler Aviv Halimi at Encore Recycling in Salinas are just two of thousands of Californians working together to turn ag-related waste into material for new products.

"There's an estimated 100 to 150 million pounds of ag waste generated in California alone every year, of which we estimate about 40 to 50 million just in the Salinas/Watsonville area," said Halimi.

Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter sees the new recycling efforts as environmental progress and a significant boost to the local economy.

"When you're employing 500 people and they spend money in the surrounding Monterey County economy, that's huge," the mayor told KION-TV. "They are buying houses, they're buying cars, they're going to the grocery store to shop. They're buying gasoline for their car. Everything they do affects our economy."

And while Californians across the state work together to put more ag-related plastic into new consumer products rather than landfills, the state also stands to benefit both environmentally and economically from the implementation of SB 270, the historic law signed by Jerry Brown last year that will eliminate hundreds of millions of single-use plastic bags from landfills.

Meanwhile, out-of-state plastic companies are pouring millions of dollars into dismantling the effort. Californians Against Waste is leading the fight to ensure California's law is implemented. Join California's fight against Big Plastic.