Council Dumps Compost Company

A politically well-connected company that tried for six years to come up with an acceptable way to compost the city’s waste--and lobbied heavily for delays--was dumped Friday by an angry Los Angeles City Council.

California Co-Composting System, under exclusive rights since 1983 to plan how to compost waste now being treated and spewed into the ocean or landfills, has repeatedly offered unacceptable plans that put the city at full risk if anything went wrong, according to City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie. And company officials never could prove that the compost--of garbage and sewage sludge--could become a salable construction material as they promoted, Comrie said.

But company representatives, who have contributed $25,000 to several council campaigns since 1983, had persuaded the council to let them keep trying. Councilman Marvin Braude, noting the wasted money and years, called the company “a sick fish” and said the city had become “a laughingstock for tolerating this kind of shenanigans.”