L.A. Renters Get Curbside: A couple weeks ago, the city of Los Angeles for the first time gave apartment dwellers the option of having their recycling picked up at the curb by city crews. According to this item in yesterday´s Los Angeles Times [scroll down to "What can apartment dwellers in Los Angeles do this week ..."], residents or building managers can sign up their buildings for curbside collection by calling the city´s all-purpose 311 hotline.

 

The rules governing the types of material that can and can´t be recycled are a little arcane, though. For instance, packing foam is fine, but packing peanuts are a no-no. As usual, the road of progress is pocked with chuckholes.

 

Canadian Capital Crackdown: Ottawa is fixing to get tough with companies that don´t recycle. The Ottawa Citizen reports that the city is considering adopting a new garbage law that would ban businesses´ and institutions´ sending recyclables to landfills and would mandate that those organizations separate their recyclables from their trash.

 

Ottawa officials are also putting heat on Waste Management of Canada to show more leadership in diverting waste from landfills. Some Ottawa business owners have complained that private waste companies in the area offer little in the way of recycling programs, and Waste Management drew heat from some neighbors last year when it announced it wanted to triple the size of its Carp Road Landfill near Ottawa.

 

Pete Fehrenbach is managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.

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