Environmentalism Starts at Home

It’s always been odd that nearly half of Los Angeles’ residents don’t get one of the city’s most popular services: curbside recycling. But a pilot program launched this month in the west San Fernando Valley seeks to fix that by providing residents of apartment complexes with the big bins that have become fixtures in the city’s single-family neighborhoods. Getting more residents to recycle is the first step toward complying with strict state and federal environmental laws requiring the city to divert half its trash from landfills by 2000.

Although the city has provided bins to single-family homes and small apartment buildings for the past seven years, extending the program to bigger complexes was problematic because most are served by private waste haulers. Those companies sometimes provide recycling services, but usually only to very large complexes where they can make a profit. The city program fills the wide gap between very large and very small complexes.

Over the next year, sanitation officials will monitor the program in Reseda, Encino and Tarzana--communities chosen because they already have recycling rates that are among the highest in the city. If successful, the program would be expanded from the current 71 apartment complexes to buildings citywide. Although just 15% of the city’s trash comes from apartment complexes, getting more tenants to separate their bottles, cans and newspapers can push Los Angeles over the top of state and federal recycling requirements.

Doing that means making it easier. The past success of the city’s curbside recycling program demonstrates that homeowners are eager to help out the environment when their part of the deal is minimal. There’s no reason to believe tenants won’t do the same.