Managing L.A.'s Mounting Waste Flow

"The task of dealing with some of Los Angeles' most unpleasant realities falls to the Bureau of Sanitation. Even while faced with growing amounts of waste, tougher and tougher federal and local environmental regulations, and constant public resistance to necessary projects, the L.A. Bureau of Sanitation engenders a sense of progress, cooperation, and success. In order to better understand this crucial city department's knack for dealing with unpleasant challenges, the Metro Investment Report was pleased to speak with Rita Robinson, director of the L.A. Bureau of Sanitation."

"One of the key projects that we're looking at is the diversion of the solid waste to renewable energy and green power by 2010. We released an RFP in February of this year from commercial facilities to be able to do 200 to 1,000 tons per day. That RFP is already out on the street, and the responses are due by August of this year. We've had a tremendous amount of interest in the initial RFP briefing. A number of companies are forming partnerships to make sure that they have a viable proposal to bring to the city."

"Our goal is to be a landfill-free city in the future. As we look out over our five-year plan, we continue to build in that vein. Some of the short-term things we're looking at: the city still has the legal authority to send bio-solids to Kern County even though there is a real impact on that community, so we're diversifying as much as we can..."

Thanks to James Brasuell