The onsite Cal State Long Beach Recycling Center is in the process of face-lifting its facilities – a makeover long overdue, according to its employees.
Renovations to the recycling center have been underway since Monday. The renovations include cutting down trees, removing the current trailer and trenching near the Isabel Patterson Child Development Center to insert sewer lines leading into the new trailer.
The recycling plant will be closed Oct. 29-31, Nov. 12-14 and Nov. 19-21 while renovations take place.
The long overdue makeover was first introduced in February 2011, when the Associated Students, Inc. Board of Control approved funding for the new campus recycling center trailer. A final inspection of the new facility will take place Nov. 22.
The estimated cost of revamping the facility is $256,000. Funding for the renovations came in part from money raised by the recycling center itself, while the rest came from ASI and University Facilities Management.
According to Recycling Coordinator Lee Johnson, the trailer was overdue for an upgrade. The trailer houses the facility itself and also provides a break room, lockers and an office space for Johnson.
“The trailer is very old and falling apart,” Johnson said about the current structure, which was built in 1982 and has been home to on campus and community recyclables for years.
The new trailer will be 12-by-60 foot, as opposed to the current 12-by-30 foot trailer. Johnson stated that 14 to 15 students have to work in shifts in the current workspace.
“We have to use waterless hand cleaners and must use a portable restroom because the trailer does not have a sewer line,” Johnson said.
The renovations will allow for the addition of showers, more locker space, running water and, most importantly, restrooms.
Senior illustration major Paul Alvarez said he has been working at the recycling center for four years and is excited for the changes to come.
Alvarez said that he is especially happy that he, along with other employees, will no longer have to use the portable restroom that only gets serviced once a week.
“It will be nice to wash up,” Alvarez said. “[I] won’t have to worry about hygiene being below standard.”
Another student employee, senior and creative writing major Spencer Dominguez, said that he is looking forward to seeing the changes before he graduates.
“[The recycling center] will be a little happier,” Dominguez said. “[We] will be able to eat our food and won’t have to worry about germs or the constant smell of hand sanitizer.”