L.A. Begins New Trash Pickup Era

The era of trash containment has arrived in Los Angeles.

The good old days of leaving bags, boxes and rubbish pails jumbled together at the curb every week are coming to an end.

In a system to be phased in citywide by 1993, sanitation officials will allocate two 60-gallon bins to each of the city’s 720,000 households. People who leave out more rubbish will have to pay to get it picked up. Each household will also get a 14-gallon bin for recyclables.

“This will cause people to be more intimately involved with their waste,” said Drew Sones, recycling manager for the Department of Public Work’s Bureau of Sanitation.

Free garbage collection has long been a sacred cow in Los Angeles. Sam Yorty won a mayoral election 30 years ago by campaigning against recycling, calling it “coercion against the housewives of this city.”

“This is a major policy change,” said City Councilwoman Joy Picus, a longtime proponent of recycling. “We are removing recyclables from the waste stream and finding other ways to handle garbage besides putting it in a landfill.”

The “L.A. Resource Program” for solid waste collection was established to comply with a program passed by the City Council in 1989 and a state law requiring as much as a 50% reduction in landfill dumping by 2000.

The pairs of trash bins, one black and one green, will be picked up by automated sanitation trucks whose drivers need not leave the trucks to hoist and empty them. Extra garbage is being picked up separately at no cost until the City Council establishes fees for it. The recycling bin will be picked up by a separate recycling truck.

Although recycling began in areas such as Hancock Park and Silver Lake last fall, automated pickups started in Sunland, Tujunga and parts of Sylmar in the East San Fernando Valley three weeks ago. The program is expected to be in South-Central Los Angeles in April and in the Harbor area by late fall. The West Valley will have the program next year, and the Westside by early 1993, sanitation officials say.

People will have to learn to “manage their trash,” Sones said, when they have extra refuse from moving, yard cleanups or parties. On these occasions, they can buy extra containers or bags to hold the extra material, he said, or find ways to fit more into their alloted bins.

To educate residents, the bureau is making “refuse instructors” available at district offices. “We’ll have people go out to homes and help you get more into your can,” Sones said.

The city arrived at the 120-gallon refuse limit after surveys showed that the average household--defined as single-family homes and small apartment buildings--puts out four 30-gallon garbage cans weekly for collection, Sones said. Last year, the City Council voted to make that the weekly limit, Picus said, because that was the smallest-sized bin that the automatic trucks could handle.

Sanitation officials recommended giving out two 90-gallon containers, she said, but “we felt, how can you give them more? You’re not getting the message across.”

The 120-gallon limit represents no real decrease, Sones said, but residential trash reductions will be achieved by collection of recyclable glass, metal or plastic beverage containers and newspapers, all of which make up 15% of residential refuse.

Yard trimmings make up 30% of household refuse, Sones said. Within five years, the city will phase in separate collection of this waste in one of the two bins--the green one. As recycling habits become entrenched, the bureau hopes that much of the lawn trimmings will be composted and resold as mulch.

Large items, such as furniture or appliances, will continue to be picked up free, Sones said.

In the last few weeks, as the automated trucks began making their rounds in the East Valley, bureau workers have fanned out ahead of the trucks to show residents how to place the bins so that the truck’s hydraulic arms can reach them.

“They have to be in the gutter, at the curb, 3 feet apart and 3 feet from the nearest object,” said Richard Wozniak, the East Valley district superintendent.

A few kinks were noted in the new procedure.

On Laurelgrove Avenue in Studio City last week, homeowner Lloyd Dent noticed that a sanitation worker had rearranged his cans before the truck arrived, but no one had told him why. “The word hasn’t gotten out,” he said.

His neighbor, Volietta Murphy, said she found the sanitation department’s written instruction material vague and was still unclear about how to dispose of large amounts of yard trimmings. “That’s most of what’s in there,” she said, pointing to her two cans.

A drive around the area, in its second week of automated pickup, showed very few homes had trash beyond the two-bin limit. Several households had only set out one for pickup.

Although Los Angeles does not charge for trash service, which costs the city about $125 million a year, residents have been paying an extra $3 on their Department of Water and Power bills in the last two years, Sones said. This fee, which generates about $22 million a year, Sones added, is helping to pay for the new program’s $180-million start-up costs.

State law requires cities to reduce present landfill dumping by 25% in 1995 and 50% by the year 2000. But residential households whose trash is picked up by the Bureau of Sanitation amounts to only 5,500 tons a day of the 18,000 to 20,000 tons a day going to landfills. The rest is picked up by private haulers who serve large apartment houses, industry and commercial properties.

Joan Edwards, director of Integrated Solid Waste Management for the city’s Department of Public Works, said state compliance demands that the city institute a citywide plan that includes public as well as private collection. While working on the plan, Edwards said, she found that private trash businesses are already recycling.

“At least 15% is being recycled by private haulers, waste paper dealers, scrap metal dealers, even scavengers,” she said.

Sones estimated that the city will trim back “a little over 30% of our waste” through its residential program by 1995. “To reach 50% by the year 2000 under the state law, we’re looking at other material we can add to the recycling program,” he said. “We think we will have to move into mixed paper. That’s junk mail, magazines, cereal boxes--any paper other than newspaper, and 28% of the waste stream now. If we do that by the year 2000 we will be over 50%.”

Times staff writer Myron Levin contributed to this article.

TIMETABLE FOR TRASH PLAN Here is the schedule for phasing in the new trash program:

NORTH CENTRAL

Atwater, Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock, Echo Park, Elysian Park, Glassell Park, Hancock Park, Highland Park, Hollywood, Lincoln Heights, Los Feliz, Montecito Heights, Monterey Hills, Mt. Washington, Silver Lake, Westlake.

147,000 households

* Recycling Sept. ‘90-Oct.’91

* Automated Pickup April-Oct. ’91

SOUTH-CENTRAL

Mid-City 6,000 households

* Recycling and automated pickup April ’91

Mid-City, Hyde Park, Watts 114,000 households

* Recycling and automated pickup March ‘92-Jan. ’93

HARBOR

Harbor City, San Pedro, Wilmington 35,000 households

* Recycling and automated pickup Oct.-Nov. ’91

WESTERN

Bel-Air Estates, Beverly Glen, Brentwood, Castellammare, Century City, Mar Vista, Mid-City, Miracle Mile, Mt. Olympus, Pacific Palisades, Palisades Highlands, Palms, Playa del Rey, Rancho Park, Sawtelle, Venice, West Los Angeles, Westchester, Westwood. 125,000 households

* Recycling Oct. ‘91-March ’92

* Automated Pickup Jan.-June ’93

EAST VALLEY

Portions of Lake View Terrace, Sylmar, North Hollywood, Pacoima, Sunland, Tujunga, Universal City, Van Nuys, Studio City. 26,000 households

* Recycling March-April ’91

* Automated Pickup Feb.-April ’91

Arleta, Mission Hills, Panorama City, Olive View, Sun Valley, Sylmar, Sylmar Square, Sepulveda, Sherman Oaks, Toluca Lake. Portions of Lake View Terrace, North Hollywood, Pacoima, Sunland, Tujunga, Universal City, Van Nuys, Studio City. 112,000 households

* Recycling Nov.’91-April ’92

* Automated Pickup Nov. ‘91-April ’92

WEST VALLEY

West of the San Diego Freeway 120,000 households

* Recycling and automated pickup April ‘92-June’93

NOTE: 35,000 household have been in various pilot programs over the last two years.