Trash Cops Cost Budget-Strapped LA $1 Million

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 5) -- A little-known regulation is costing the city's taxpayers at least $1 million a year to employ trash cops to root through bins and tag residents who don't separate the paper and bottles from the coffee grounds and chicken bones.

In an era in which the City of Angels is trying to stay afloat with a budget deficit projected at $330 million for 2011-12, a dozen uniformed "recycling ambassadors" armed with clipboards are busy traversing the city trying to get residents to dump recyclables in their blue bins, trash in the black and landscaping in the green.

It's part of Los Angeles' quest to have a 70 percent recycling compliance rate by 2013 in a state where the average is 52 percent and the nation is 32 percent. Los Angeles already is at 65 percent.

"The public has done a great job, and we're fortunate here in Los Angeles that people have adapted to recycling and really care about the environment," Cora Jackson-Fossett, spokeswoman for the city of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation, told AOL News.

However, this year the city has grappled with layoffs, cut back one fire engine company, closed libraries two days a week, stopped tree trimming and abandoned child care programs at parks.

The recycling program began in 2007 following a state mandate to reduce waste. A unanimous council vote allowed for eight positions at a cost of $1,080,067 annually. It has since grown to a dozen workers; the current cost of running the program was not available at publication time.

"I am at the verge of exploding because I cannot stand the local government's intrusion into my life," said KFI-AM radio's John Kobylt, who hosts a daily radio program aimed at undoing government bureaucracy. "I pay my water bill, I pay for my garbage to be picked up, I pay for the bins. It's my business, my choice. It's not the government's business to tell me what to do."

Kobylt profiled the city's "Recycling Education Program" last week on the "John and Ken Show," after a listener mailed in a copy of a red-lettered notice that he had received.

"Important Information Regarding Your Solid Resources Collection!" the notice said in its headline.

Next: "Unfortunately, some residential areas in the City have failed to adhere to the rules/guidelines governing the proper use of the containers, which is causing high levels of contamination in our recycling stream. ...

"CONTAMINATION OF THE BLUE OR GREEN CONTAINER IS A VIOLATION OF THE CITY'S RECYCLING PROGRAM AND MAY RESULT IN THE CONFISCATION OF ALL CONTAINERS FROM THE RESIDENCE," the notice blared.

Kobylt railed, "What is contamination? It's not the Ebola virus. It means plastic water bottles were put in the refuse container!"

Offenders are first picked up on the sanitation department's radar by trash collectors, who note when blue and green bins don't contain proper waste. Next, an ambassador is dispatched to look in the bins on a future date, and if a wrong mix of trash is found, the resident will be counseled. Further noncompliance results in the above notice and then bin confiscation.

Jackson-Fossett said she is unaware of any bins that have been confiscated, stressing that most people are in compliance.

Two Los Angeles City Council members were questioned by AOL News about the necessity for such a program in a budget deficit year if compliance is so high. No response was received as of publication time.

But for the Angelenos who balk at the trash police, they have nothing on the city of San Francisco, which initiated a similar program last year with fines of up to $1,000. It is the most stringent recycling mandate in the nation.

"People are dealing with it just fine," Mark Westlund, a spokesman for the city's environmental department, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "For most people, the green composting bin is just another part of life in San Francisco."

Westlund did not return phone calls from AOL News.

San Francisco's recycling rate is 72 percent.

But there is one politician there who wasn't all warm and fuzzy over the idea.

"This takes Big Brother to an extreme I'm not comfortable with," San Francisco County Supervisor Sean Elsbernd told The New York Times. "I don't want the government going through my trash cans."