Recycling Can Help Put a Lid on Landfills : We must keep pressure on city officials to close polluting garbage dumps, while at the same time trying harder to reuse and reduce consumption of resources at home.

Nobody wants a landfill in his back yard, but the San Fernando Valley seems to draw them like flies.

Lopez Canyon in the northeast Valley, Sunshine Canyon in Granada Hills and Elsmere Canyon in Santa Clarita all have been the targets of major political battles during the past few years. All pose severe threats to the long-term health of our environment by polluting our air and water.

No matter how many precautions are taken, eventually all landfills will leak. The California Water Quality Control Board has found that 77% of all active landfills tested in California are leaking and contaminating ground water. Lopez Canyon already has been cited for discharging contaminated water into Bartholomaus Canyon. Should Elsmere Canyon open, drinking water for more than half the residents in Santa Clarita will be threatened.

In addition, gases produced by landfills can cause illness. Lopez Canyon has been cited 16 times in the past five years for emitting harmful gases into nearby residential areas. Polluted air also blows dust particles carrying harmful bacteria and diseases, some of which land in our back yards and on animals.

These problems are direct results emanating from landfills. They don’t include the noise and pollution from trucks.

What can we do to stop these dangers from threatening our health? More important, how can we use the lessons learned from landfills to once again make our planet--our environment--healthier?

First, we need to make sure additional landfills are not opened and existing ones are not expanded. There is already sufficient landfill space in Los Angeles to hold our trash.

Recently, progress was made in the battle to close Lopez Canyon when Valley residents and elected officials pressured the Board of Public Works to deny the Bureau of Sanitation’s request to keep it open five more years. After numerous protests, the board recommended a one-year extension. Residents hailed it as a victory, but it is only the beginning. We must act with the same perseverance in our homes--which brings us to recycling and “precycling.”

Always look for products made from recycled materials. Learn to precycle when shopping by avoiding plastic containers and plastic foam. More than 140 million pounds of plastic could be eliminated from American landfills if 10% of us purchased products with less packaging 10% of the time. Don’t spend money on something just because it has an attractive box.

In addition, avoid toxic substances such as harsh oven cleaners and insecticides which, once they are dumped in landfills, end up in our water and air. Read labels carefully and choose the least toxic products available, like the ones that have a “cautionary” label instead of those that say “danger” (which means the product is highly toxic).

Composting organic waste is another method that would take hundreds of pounds of trash out of Valley landfills. Composting is a method of creating a natural fertilizer from organic waste. It is simple to do at home by piling leaves, grass clippings and weeds in a corner of your garden or by buying a small container in which to put organic waste. Composting, combined with a recycling program, has enabled the town of Davis to cut its garbage in half. There is no reason the Valley can’t do the same.

In fact, the Valley already has made some progress in its recycling program. In Sun Valley, Recycle America and Waste Management are transforming the Bradley Landfill into the nation’s first recycling park facility. In May, the city of Los Angeles expanded its recycling program in the East San Fernando Valley by requiring residents to put yard trimmings in separate curbside containers.

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Green waste accounts for 30% to 35% of the county’s waste that goes into landfills. It is also one of the easiest to separate and recycle. If the program hasn’t come to your neighborhood yet, don’t wait. Start separating your green trash now and take it to recycling centers along with aluminum cans, glass bottles and newspapers. If your community has no recycling center or program, call city officials and insist on one today.

We must demand more recycling and waste reduction centers to decrease the amount of trash taken to garbage dumps. Instead of using landfills as a first resort, city officials must start seriously looking at other viable options, and we need to urge them to do so.

Every year for the past four years the Earth Communications Office has created public service announcements shown in movie theaters around the country. One of our PSAs was titled “Power of One” and focused on the difference one person can make. It’s time to use that power to lower the amount of trash going into landfills and get our environment healthy.

It’s important to keep pressure on city officials to close garbage dumps, but it is even more crucial that each of us make an effort to recycle, reuse and reduce at home. That’s where the fight to have a healthy planet for our children must begin. The power of one is within us all, and one person can truly make a difference.