Glendale Mulls Ban on Trash, Recycling Plan

Glendale officials, reacting to a report that predicts the city’s only landfill will reach capacity in 14 years, have proposed a mandatory recycling program and a ban on the dumping of trash from Los Angeles and Burbank.

The ban on dumping, coupled with other waste-reduction programs, could extend the life of Scholl Canyon landfill from 35 to 53 years, according to a Glendale waste management report.

City officials said the amount of trash dumped at Scholl Canyon has tripled in the last 10 years as other regional landfills closed. The lack of landfills throughout the Los Angeles area has reached “a crisis stage,” said George Miller, Glendale’s public works director.

During a study session last week with county officials and representatives of nearby cities, Glendale City Council members said a number of steps need to be taken to extend the life of Scholl and to develop alternative disposal processes in the future.

One of the most significant and immediate steps calls for a ban on all trash from Los Angeles and Burbank. The city also plans to exclude trash from about 40 other cities and communities that use Scholl.

Under an ordinance expected to be adopted this week, only Pasadena, La Canada Flintridge and a few other communities in the San Gabriel Valley will be permitted to continue dumping at Scholl after Dec. 26. Those communities are the cities of South Pasadena, San Marino and Sierra Madre and unincorporated county areas bordering those cities, such as Altadena, La Crescenta and Montrose.

The ban will cause the greatest impact on private refuse haulers in Los Angeles, who will be forced to truck rubbish to private dumps in the San Fernando Valley that already receive most of Los Angeles’ garbage, county officials said.

An estimated 811,000 tons of rubbish from Los Angeles is being dumped annually at Scholl, accounting for 46% of all the trash deposited in Glendale.