This is the perfect place for kids who ignore their toys but play with the boxes.

WHAT A DUMP: Somebody call the Sanitation Department! Or Friends of the Earth! There’s a load of detergent containers, aluminum caps and old tires lying around on San Pedro’s Cabrillo Beach.

Actually, that load of trash was placed there on purpose.

It is Los Angeles’ first playground made entirely from recycled materials--34,000 plastic detergent containers, 44,000 aluminum caps and 90 tires.

Paid for with a grant from consumer products manufacturer Lever Brothers Co., the playground opened Thursday to children who lined up early to play on the recycled trash. And they had a great time.

So, you see, it’s not too late to return those Nintendo games and other high-tech Christmas toys the kids have been begging for. It has now been proven that some cans, old tires and detergent containers can make the average kid happy.

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NOT SO FAST: The oil beneath Hermosa Beach’s tidelands will remain untapped at least for a little longer.

The State Lands Commission has failed to prove why a proposed oil-drilling project in the tidelands off the city would benefit the state and must reconsider its approval of the plan, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne ruled last week.

The ruling delighted Jan Chatten-Brown, an attorney for the Hermosa Beach Stop Oil Coalition, which has filed two lawsuits to stop the project. “I think, when we present our case to the State Lands Commission, we have an extremely high likelihood of persuading them that this is not in the state’s interest,” she said.

But Hermosa Beach Assistant City Atty. Edward Lee said he believes Chatten-Brown was overly optimistic about the ruling’s significance. He said the judge’s concern amounted to a technicality and predicted the State Lands Commission will reaffirm its approval.

Macpherson Oil Co. holds a lease from the city to drill 30 oil wells in a city yard at 6th Street and Valley Drive. The wells would be drilled at an angle to reach oil reserves beneath the city and the ocean floor. The company is expected to argue that the project will benefit the state by, among other things, reducing the dependence on foreign oil.

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RECALL EFFORT: Lawndale residents last week served Councilman Norm Lagerquist with a notice informing him of their intent to recall him from office.

Lagerquist three weeks ago was censured by the City Council for writing a letter to a judge on city stationery seeking leniency for a former political consultant convicted of child molestation.

A recall election is the only way to dismiss an elected city official. Lagerquist’s term ends in 1996.

In order to force a recall election, a group must get the signatures of 25% of the city’s registered voters--about 2,000 in Lawndale.

Karen Hesse, a community activist and the leader of the recall drive, said her group should have no problem getting the signatures.

“Mr. Lagerquist no longer deserves the honor of representing the people of Lawndale,” Hesse said.

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ISN’T THAT SWEET? Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., whose district stretches from San Pedro to Watts, has offered to help Watts activist Sweet Alice Harris get back her seat on the hospital panel she served on for years.

Svorinich has offered to write a letter on Harris’ behalf to Mayor Richard Riordan asking that he appoint her to the commission that oversees the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Willowbrook.

At a City Council committee meeting last week, the 58-year-old founder and director of Parents of Watts was endorsed for appointment to Los Angeles’ Rent Adjustment Commission. Her appointment will become final when it is confirmed by the full council in the coming days.

But as the council already knows, Harris is less than thrilled about serving on the rent board because she wanted to stay on the hospital panel.

“As soon as I get to the mayor,” Harris said last week, “I’ll be back on there.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“You know you are getting old when your walker gets an air bag. . . . If your sexual fantasies involve Jesse Helms . . . and your liver spots show through your gloves . . . and they discontinued your blood type. . . .”

--Phyllis Diller, 76, appearing at Gardena’s Normandie Casino, which has used acts from the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s to publicize the gambling club.

THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Carson: The City Council on Tuesday will once again try to decide whether to help developers finance the Metro 2000 outlet mall proposed on the site of a former landfill off the San Diego Freeway. The matter had been referred to various committees, but the council is under pressure to make a decision before Jan. 1, when a new state law takes effect that would limit the city’s revenue from the project.

Lawndale: The filing period for Lawndale’s municipal election, in which the mayor’s and two council seats are open, begins Monday and closes Jan. 14. Candidates must get the signatures of at least 20 registered voters. The election will be held April 12.

Rancho Palos Verdes: The deadline to apply for positions on six city committees has been extended until Wednesday. The openings are on the committees for traffic, transit advisory, public access cable TV, recreation and parks, view restoration and long range finance. The deadline for positions on all other committees has been extended to Jan. 7.

LAST WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

San Pedro: The Los Angeles City Council postponed a decision until Jan. 5 on a proposed assessment district for businesses in downtown San Pedro. The assessment district would be bounded by Third Street, Pacific Avenue, Tenth Street and Harbor Boulevard. Fees of up to $300 a year would be applied to promoting businesses, decorating public property and making other improvements in the area.