Putting a Lid on Scavengers

The city of Los Angeles has been talking a lot of trash lately.

Reacting to the loss of $2 million to theft by trash scavengers during fiscal 1995-96, the City Council has approved one-third of an estimated $33-million plan to buy anti-scavenging curbside recycling receptacles for about 720,000 Los Angeles homes.

The bins--sometimes called “new blues” for their bright blue color--are scheduled to replace the familiar 14-gallon yellow bins citywide by 1999.

At 90 gallons each, the new receptacles have wheels and lids, and will simplify recycling. Sorting will become a thing of the past as all recyclable trash--newspapers, magazines, junk mail, soda bottles, milk jugs, soup cans, even clean pizza boxes--can all be tossed together in the new containers.

Last spring and summer, the bins proved a success during a 15-community pilot program. One community in each of the city’s council districts participated, including Reseda, Sun Valley, Westchester, South-Central, Lookout Mountain, Elysian Park and the Hollywood Reservoir area. Residents in those areas are still using the bins for weekly trash pickup.

One participant, homeowner Rose Hawthorne, 63, a 33-year resident of Genesee Avenue in Los Angeles, approves. “I like my new blue bin because it causes me to recycle more,” she said. “Now I have somewhere to put all my throw-away [junk mail].”

The bins, which cost $30 each, will require a steep city investment. The $22 million still needed will be raised by bonds and by charging residents for additional or extra-capacity trash and landscaping cans, city sanitation officials said.

And there’s a price for the convenience of no more sorting. City revenue from the sale of trash to recycling centers will fall because unsorted material is worth less.

But city sanitation officials are hoping that those losses will be more than offset by an increase in recyclable trash collected from homeowners. According to a city survey, recycling tonnage increased about 150% during the test.

The number of homes participating in recycling increased by 82% and most homeowners polled in a city survey approved of the new barrels.

About 20% of participants, however, complained that the new bins took up too much space on congested streets and in their garages.

“They’re too big and bulky,” said Ellsworth Waits, 67, of Genesee Avenue. “We don’t use [the bin] that often. We don’t have that much to throw away.”

Waits said he and many of his neighbors set out their blue bins only once a month. Even then, he said, they are only a fraction full.

Survey results confirm Waits’ complaint. Consequently, the city will offer 60-gallon blue bins if the larger versions prove too unwieldy. “Some folks almost have a heart attack when they see the 90-gallon bins,” said Daniel Hackney, a city bureau of sanitation project coordinator.

But he added that even if homeowners set their recyclable bins out less often, “pickup trucks will get in and out of the neighborhood faster and that makes residents happy.”

Besides their gargantuan size, there are other qualities of the bins that some residents dislike.

“There is a percentage that absolutely despise the Dodger blue color,” Hackney said. “People think we should have chosen a more environmental color, like brown, something that would mesh with the environment.”

But other California municipalities, such as Claremont, Burbank, Pomona, Beverly Hills and most of Orange County, have already jumped on the blue bin bandwagon.

According to Hackney, blue is fast becoming the international color for recycling. Bins in Germany, France and most United States cities have gone to some shade of blue. But, Hackney said, “We know we can’t please everybody.”

In addition to making recycling more convenient, the new blue bins can be picked up with the city’s automated trash trucks, instead of by hand as the current yellow bins are.

Sanitation officials expect this to make recyclable trash pickup more efficient, with fewer trucks on the streets handling more and more routes. And sanitation officials said the burden on city landfills should be reduced as more trash is recycled.

And then there’s the hope of reducing trash scavenging.

Since the curbside recycling program began in 1990, officials say recyclable trash has been almost “gift-wrapped” for scavengers who take advantage of the lidless yellow containers holding bottles, cans and aluminum. Newspapers, magazines and cardboard are set out separately, creating an easy crime of opportunity for scavengers.

But with all recyclable trash commingled in the new blue bins, finding the good stuff--material that yields a high value at recycling centers--will be more of a dig.

Some recyclable trash materials are hot commodities. During the summer of 1995, a scavenging frenzy occurred when shortages caused the value of recyclable newspaper stock to skyrocket from $15 to $150 a ton. The city expected to cash in on the market but scavengers often got to the goods first, and the city realized only half the $4 million expected.

For fiscal 1996-97, the city hopes to generate $1.7 million with its curbside recycling program, but still expects to lose about $400,000 to scavengers. Today’s most valuable recyclable trash item is computer paper, which can bring more than $100 a ton.

Even so, Hackney says, the scavenging heyday is over.

“It used to take 15 seconds to scavenge,” he said. With the new bins, “it will take 15 minutes. So as a business, it’s not worth it to scavenge any more.”

In the pilot program, the bins used were split in the middle with one side for cans and bottles and the other for paper. But the new bins to be used citywide will not have the divider and will take all recyclable items.

The new bins will first roll out in the west San Fernando Valley in July, followed by parts of northeastern Los Angeles in October.

The East Valley, West Los Angeles and South-Central will be next, provided the remaining funding goes through.

“If the new bins make it easier for recycling, the state of California is all for it,” said Lanny Clavecilla, spokesman for the California Integrated Waste Management Board. “Projects like this exhibit a good-faith effort.”