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It doesn\u2019t take an awful lot of investigating to see that we\u2019re swimming in an ocean of waste: There are the maxed-out landfills<\/a>, illegal trash dumping in the desert<\/a>, choked-up rivers<\/a>, strangled sea turtles<\/a> and skyrocketing trash collection fees.<\/a> <\/p>\n But there\u2019s disagreement about what it portends about our future relationship with waste. <\/p>\n Los Angeles knows how to weather a crisis \u2014 or two or three. Angelenos are tapping into that resilience, striving to build a city for everyone.<\/p>\n Many in the waste and environmental space believe the current situation is so untenable that strict anti-plastic and waste laws will soon be implemented \u2014 and we\u2019ll have less persistent waste. Others, however, are more cynical, and point to a slew of economic<\/a>, production<\/a>, marketing, judicial<\/a> and <\/a>policy indicators<\/a> that suggest things are likely only to get worse.<\/p>\n By the time 2050 rolls around, \u201cgreat swaths of California land will have become sacrifice zones contaminated with microplastics and toxic chemicals from uncontrolled dumping of organics with high levels of plastics, synthetic textile and other nonorganic contamination,\u201d said Jan Dell, president and founder of the Laguna Beach-based nonprofit Last Beach Cleanup. \u201cSome residences and neighborhoods will be declared uninhabitable.\u201d<\/p>\n This location south of East Avenue M in Lake Los Angeles holds mulch, trash and construction debris. The site was found by a resident who followed a truck onto the dirt roads.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n She noted the rampant dumping that\u2019s already happening in the Antelope Valley<\/a>, and suggested that even if the state\u2019s landmark plastic legislation is implemented in a way that legislators intended<\/a> \u2014 which includes a requirement that would reduce the amount of single-use plastic sold and distributed in the state \u2014 \u201cCalRecycle will never make [it] … work. They can\u2019t even effectively ban foam cups.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n She and others, including Susan Keefe of Beyond Plastics, another nonprofit, said the plastic and packaging industries have invested too much in ramping up plastic production <\/a>to allow legislation or bans to stop them. And consumers have become so accustomed<\/a> to the convenience of single-use plastic that change is unlikely to happen without a push from the government.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to be super positive when you see how much waste we generate,\u201d said Keefe, Beyond Plastic\u2019s Southern California director. \u201cI think that we\u2019re going to see more illegal dumping, more waste incineration plants built, and we\u2019ll run out of landfills. If we continue on the trajectory that we\u2019re on, I don\u2019t see how we\u2019re not going to be swimming in it.\u201d <\/p>\n But others, including several waste experts and community organizers across the Los Angeles region, say change is afoot. And by the time 2050 rolls around, we\u2019ll all have adopted new, less polluting, ways of consuming and discarding products.<\/p>\n There are no data or widespread evidence to back up these claims; just hope, determination and a few small-scale examples in which community-organized composting and educational outreach campaigns \u2014 with help from groups such as LA Compost and Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, or LAANE \u2014 appeared to have taken hold and made local change.<\/p>\n \u201cBy 2050 we\u2019ll be in a completely new paradigm,\u201d said Ryan Jackson, executive director of LA Compost \u2014 a composting<\/a> advocacy organization \u2014 and former director of the city\u2019s Department of Public Works. \u201cWe\u2019ll be in a resource recovery model, where nothing\u2019s wasted, and we\u2019ll be enjoying a circular economy. … It feels dramatic, but from what we\u2019ve seen up close with our organization, it\u2019s very much possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson sees the shift as one driven organically by neighborhoods and communities that have had an opportunity to see how they could live differently<\/a>. Members of his organization, which has worked in schools, community gardens and farmers markets from Long Beach to Calabasas, say they\u2019ve witnessed positive shifts in behavior and attitudes when community compost hubs have been established.<\/p>\n But, along with others, he says that government needs to play a role, too.<\/p>\n Erika Schwerdt, community organizer, shows an illegal mulch dump between homes and Wilsona Elementary and Challenger middle schools in Lake Los Angeles in April.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at a future [in 2050] where we think the city will be in a much better place because RecycLA will have been in effect for 30 years,\u201d said Victor Sanchez, the executive director of Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, or LAANE.<\/p>\n RecycLA is a 2017 Los Angeles-based recycling program<\/a>, which \u2014 in a public partnership with private waste hauling companies \u2014 promotes recycling and requires the diversion of waste material from landfills on an escalating basis. Its primary purpose is to get L.A. closer to \u201czero waste\u201d \u2014 a plan adopted<\/a> by the county\u2019s supervisors in 2022, which lays out a framework designed to reduce the use of landfills, maximize the use of natural resources and recover materials for beneficial use or reuse.<\/p>\n The idea behind it is to create a circular economy, in which products and packages are designed and manufactured with materials that can be reused, composted or recycled.<\/p>\n So far, the law has been met with mixed success. Diversion from landfill has increased, but so too has a surge of illegal waste dumping in the Antelope Valley<\/a> suggesting the law may be having some unintended consequences. Critics point to a dearth of recycling and composting infrastructure in the city and county as part of the problem. <\/a> <\/p>\n There has also been trouble at the state level.<\/p>\n In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 54, which requires that product and packaging manufacturers maintain financial responsibility for their products from beginning to end \u2014 theoretically incentivizing companies to produce items that won\u2019t contribute to a glut of waste. <\/p>\n Specifically, the law requires that by 2032, plastic and packaging companies reduce single-use plastic packaging by 25% from 2025 levels. It also requires that the remainder of single-use plastic packaging and foodware items still being sold and marketed are 100% compostable or recyclable. In addition, packaging producers will have to bear the costs of their products\u2019 end-life (whether via recycling, composting, landfill or export) and figure out how to make it happen \u2014 removing that costly burden from consumers and local governments.<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s administration has since backtracked on regulations<\/a> that would have helped to achieve these goals, and instead has written new draft regulations that critics contend are industry-friendly<\/a> and watered down.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n
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