ECONOTES : Now, About That Smog . . .
When it comes to big-city recycling, Los Angeles is doing the nation’s best job, proclaims City and State Magazine in announcing its third annual recycling awards.
“We had about 100 entries,” says Ellen Shubart, editor of the magazine for government leaders. “Los Angeles won in the category of 500,000 population and up.”
The judges considered scope and scale of programs, percentage of waste diverted from landfills, public education and how recyclables are being reused, she says. “We found that in some cities, recycling is getting much more sophisticated than just putting out a curbside bin with compartments.”
Los Angeles recycles metal, some plastic, glass, newspapers, corrugated cardboard and brown paper bags in its 720,000-household curbside program. It also offers back-yard composting workshops, yard trimmings drop-off sites, recycling drop-off sites and distributes a “How to Recycle” brochure in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean.
“People who live (in Los Angeles) may not realize how astounding it is to pull this off, but I live in Chicago and we have nothing going yet. Los Angeles has its head together,” Shubart says. The award will be presented at the National League of Cities conference in November.
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