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Curb-side recycling for Sun City residents may be getting closer to reality.

The Sun City Home Owners Association’s Environmental Committee will host a public meeting 1 p.m. Thursday, April 10 at the SCHOA office, 10401 W. Coggins Drive, to gague resident’s interest level in such a program. The meeting is also designed to determine what kind of program residents hope to see implemented, according to Shawn Parks, Parks and Sons manager.

"We can put a programn togather and implement it, but it may not be what residents want," Mr. Parks said. "We want to see what residents want."

Parks and Sons does have a limited recycling program in place in Sun City. The compnay picks up newspapers, junk mail and magazines twice a month, Mr. Parks explained. These materials are given to the Sun City Host Lions Club, whose members bundle and sell the recycled trash to fund its community service activities.

"Another reason we don’t want to just put a program together without resident input is we don’t want to put the Lions Club ‘out of business,’" Mr. Parks said.

The Lions have three recycling stations — 107th and Peoria avenues, 99th Avenue and Greenway Road and 107th Avenue and Bell Road — and take all materials except plastic and tin, according to Paul Yopps, Lions member and recycling coordinator. While the club does not take tin, it does recycle aluminum cans, he added.

Residents are eager to see an expanded Sun City recycling program.

"That is one of the few things I miss from living in Phoenix; I would recycle plastic, aluminum, glass, phone books — everything possible," said Sun City resident Claudia Cooley. "It’s inconvenient for many residents to have to transport their recyclable items to a recycling center or bin and so many things are thrown into the trash that should be recycled."

Items that seem to need collection are plastic bottles, paint cans, oil cans, batteries, tires and food cans, according to Sun City resident Anne Randall Stewart.

"We have curbside collection for newspapers; why not combine that with the others?" she asked.

Mr. Parks said his company has worked witht he Lions Club on the paper recycling program since the early 1990s, but only collected what club members could handle. However, recent talks with Lions officials indicate they are able to take more items, Mr. Parks explained.

"There was not a market for it (recycling) until the last few years," he said. "But people are talking about it and doing it more."

Sun City resident Ethel Sanders is hopeful a curbside program will help resident avoid the inconvenience as well as cost of taking material to landfills.

"Landfills are costly and not going to get any cheaper," she said. "And more land will be needed and no one wants a landfill anywhere near them."

She suggested providing a financial incentive — such as a refund for bottles and other items — might make people more willing to recycle their trash.

Mr. Parks said any curbside program conducted by his company would need to gain a variance from Maricopa County, which requires private trash haulers to pickup at least twice a week while municipal haulers can pick up only once a week. Much of Parks and Sons trash collection is in unincorporated areas of the county, he added.

Sun City resident Paul Santoro supports a recycling effort, but is concerned there may not be funds available to pay for it.

"To have it done corrrectly requires an outlay of funds that are not available to the community," Mr. Santoro said.

Sun City resident Audrey Coulter, while in favor of curbside recycling, is concerned about what a the program would cost individual homeonwers, as well as other extra costs.

"First the energy (electricity and water) used to clean jars and cans, etc., and the special garbage cans we would have to purchase to separate these items," Ms. Coulter said. "Of course, Parks and Sons would need to purchase a special truck to pick up the recyclables and as always these costs would be passed on to the customer."

Parks and Sons officials are trying to put together an effective program that would not be a financial burden on Sun City residents, Mr. Parks said.

"We will do all we can to create a more robust program without raising rates," he said.