Waste and Recycling

Garbage Monopolies Coming to L.A.?

Unions, enviros, push hard to ban free-market trash removal.

Monster Trash Rally

Starbucks has Venti Recycling Goals

If you've ever finished your drink in a Starbucks cafe, then looked around in vain for a recycling bin in which to deposit the empty cup, you're not alone. With less than 10% of Starbucks in Los Angeles County having customer recycling bins, a lot of our cups end up in landfills. There are 364 compa ... More >>

EPA Penalizes Ventura County Construction Company for Illegal Dumping Near Endangered Species

​The Calleguas Creek runs about 30 miles long up near Oxnard, delivering freshwater to Mugu Lagoon, a partially enclosed body of water that is home to several endangered species. In 2005 and 2006, Ventura County contractor Thomas Staben dumped 40,000 cubic yards of harmful materials - about 2,00 ... More >>

Grow Your Own Mushrooms: Urban Farming in a Box

Back to the Roots​Back to the Roots is the kind of grow-your-own mushroom kit company that makes you wonder what you've been doing with your life. Founders Nikhil Arorahe and Alejandro Velez first got the idea in 2009 during their last semester at UC Berkeley when, just two months before their ... More >>

Sleight of Green Hand

EPA Orders Tire Plant on Indian Reservation in Coachella Valley to Clean Up, Reduce Fire Risk

​Less than a month after a potentially hazardous fire erupted at a tire recycling plant on Indian land in the Coachella Valley, federal environmental regulators have ordered the company, Consolidated Tire Recyclers, to clean up its act. Under the order, according to the Environmental Protection A ... More >>

Feeling Taxed? Fines Increase For Leaving Extra Trash Out In Los Angeles

.imelda via Flickr​ The city of Los Angeles continues to find new and inventive ways to essentially tax residents as it struggles to keep its budget in the black. City officials on Thursday warned residents that if they leave extra trash on the curb they could face newly increased fines of $50 ... More >>

Compton Creek Cleanup OK'd

Compton Creek, an eight and a half-mile trickle of water that miraculously runs through some of L.A. County's grimiest landscapes, is a significant step closer to receiving an ecological makeover. On Wednesday the County Board of Supervisors, prodded by South L.A. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, unan ... More >>

Trash Talking

Just before dawn this morning I lay awake trying to talk myself into getting up. There would be, I promised myself, a newspaper waiting in the driveway, a choice of toast or bagel. My favorite coffee mug would be hanging from a hook. I may even turn the heat on. Then I heard it -- the shudder of an ... More >>

Wading in the Waste Stream With the Center for Land Use Interpretation

On the bus to the dump

Antonio Pinocchiosa and His Police Tax

The mayor gets caught with his hands in a $137 million cookie jar

Living Like Ed

Sooo Trashy!

What's goin on here you ask? Why it's our latest discovery, The Trash Band, who play only items found in dumpsters and waste bins. We caught the colorful ensemble at Lust For LACE, the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition's annual Valentines party this past Saturday and let's just say recycling has n ... More >>

Green Without Envy

Less space, more fulfilling

No Life Without Sunshine

Antonio backs off a campaign promise to close hated Valley dump

Down the Tubes

U.S. balks at European rule that manufacturers recycle toxic computers