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Foothill Disposal, Mountain View’s garbage contractor since 1993, has changed its name to “Recology Mountain View,” general manager Pamela Martello announced on Thursday.

The new name — apparently a combination of “ecology” and “recycle” — was picked by parent company Norcal Waste Systems, which changed its own name to “Recology” earlier this year.

Martello said the name change better reflects changes in the industry and the company’s new goal of being “leaders in the growth of resource recovery.” The company’s Web site displays a new marketing strategy focused on “zero waste” — meaning, among other things, efforts to divert waste from landfills through recycling and composting.

“It isn’t just a change in name, it’s a call to action,” the site says.

Worker uniforms and garbage trucks soon will display the new name and logo, but Martello said it doesn’t make financial sense to change the name on the thousands of garbage cans in the city.

In 2006, the name Norcal Waste Systems was tarnished in San Jose after the company was implicated in a bribery and fraud scandal with then-Mayor Ron Gonzalez.

Daniel DeBolt

Daniel DeBolt

Daniel DeBolt

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7 Comments

  1. I didn’t realize that garbage companies had marketing departments. With the new name, I’ll be sure to recycle; oooh, I do now! Seems like the state passed a law about this several years ago so how are we going to change?? Youth wants to know!

    I think Mtn. View does a good job of making recycling easy but I haven’t found much info on the effectiveness of the recycling recently so I’m commenting on the name change and lack of info, not complaining.

    Wonder what Ann Cozzolino would say about this??

  2. I’d love to see a story about the dual-bin recycling carts. As far as I can tell, the blue-side (containers) and gray side (paper) get dumped together into the transport truck. If it is single-stream recycling, do we really need to separate paper, cans, and bottles? Can we use either side of the dual cart if one side is full?

    When will Mountain View’s contract with Recology come up for renewal, and will we possibly get the ability to recycle anything else?

  3. Garbage man -> garbage collector -> sanitation engineer -> recologist.

    Lordy, what’s next from the PC world?

    Oh well, if they can improve diversion, more power to them.

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