By Sue Doyle
Los Angeles Daily News
Jan 23, 2008

Looking to turn trash into treasure, Los Angeles' Bureau of Sanitation has launched a plan to help generate millions of dollars from the spaghetti jars, old newspapers and shoe boxes residents throw out.

Under the massive citywide recycling program - known as the Zero Waste Plan - most of the 3,600 tons of trash picked up daily in Los Angeles will be recycled, reduced to compost or turned into alternative energy by 2030.

The plan's goal is to stop the piling up of old yogurt cups, coffee grinds and other junk in landfills, where they churn out greenhouse gases.

"We cannot continue doing business as usual," said Alex Helou, assistant director for the city's Bureau of Sanitation, under the Department of Public Works. "There's energy stored in the trash. This is the energy we need to harness."

Announced Wednesday at a public meeting inside Expo Center, the bureau's energy goals actually started last year. Still in its planning phase, the program follows environmental plans proposed in the past by city officials.

City Councilman Greig Smith, for example, has a 20-year plan adopted by the city to stop using landfills, transform garbage into electricity and other materials, and help create industries and new jobs to support that growth.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in May proposed cutting 19 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions in Los Angeles by 2020.

Each day, Los Angeles residents cast aside 1,000 tons of recyclables and an additional 1,800 tons of thorny rose bushes, dead palm-tree leaves and fresh-cut grass. In addition, sanitation workers each day haul off 3,600 tons of other stuff that is not recycled.

City officials see a gold mine in the junk left curbside.

The city could earn more than $100 million annually after bringing trash to recycling centers, said Reina Pereira, project manager for the Bureau of Sanitation.

"We've got a long way to go," said Pereira. "But the benefits and savings could be huge."

Those recovery centers already sell our 1,000 daily tons of discarded plastic, paper and cardboard overseas to recycling facilities in such places as India and China.

Having contracts in place with the U.S. recycling centers, the city earns about $4.8 million a year off the deal.

The United States has not kept up with the same investment to support recycling as overseas countries, which have invested billions in infrastructures to recycle the items and offer competitive rates for them, said Helou.

In Japan, for example, plastic foam is recycled. But the United States does not have the technology to do that, Helou said.

Helou also said other countries can do the work cheaper and also have fewer environmental regulations controlling recycling centers than the United States does.

"They can take products from us and recycle them," Helou said. "And they can ship them back to us."

The city wants to develop new recycling centers in the six regions of Los Angeles where it collects garbage and possibly add composting sites.

In addition, there are plans to have an alternative technology facility up and running by 2010. It is unknown exactly how much money the city could generate from it.

"We could create more green jobs around here," Helou said.

Representing South Los Angeles in the program, Harriet Seay said it could be challenging to encourage recycling in her community when the city is profiting from it.

The 71-year-old grandmother is showing her neighbors that they do get personal bonuses with recycling.

"They do get benefits," said Seay. "From cleaning up your neighborhood to having a say-so in what's going on in your community."

Los Angeles leads the nation in recycling, with 60 percent of the city's trash sorted for recycling. But officials have set tougher goals to increase recycling efforts, striving for 70percent in 2015 and 90 percent by 2025.

Plans to make these goals reality include: putting recycling bins at all public venues; requiring all multifamily-building owners to provide recycling services to tenants; and holding businesses accountable for their packaging so products can be reused, recycled or composted.

In addition, the California Department of Transportation may be required to use mulch created from local yard clippings to help landscape major roadways.

Wilma Bennett of West Hills got involved with the Bureau of Sanitation's program after realizing the amount of trash that could be spared from landfills if small businesses participated more in recycling.

If each of the 200,000 small businesses operating in Los Angeles throws out 10 batteries a year, that's 2 million batteries in the trash, said Bennett.

Considered hazardous waste, batteries must be recycled in California or taken to hazardous-waste disposal facilities.

Bennett said small businesses often don't have the manpower to take materials to these facilities and recommends that the city consider picking them up.

"We would never dream of relying on our citizens to drive 10 miles to dump their own garbage," said Bennett. "But with our most dangerous garbage, we expect people to drive for miles to dispose."