What a Waste: Municipal Refuse Reform and a Century of Solid-Waste Management in Los Angeles

Abstract

Urbanization historically has increased the severity of waste-management problems as there is more waste produced per acre, and the growth of residential settlement makes it increasingly difficult to get waste of sight, out of mind conveniently and cheaply. Industrialization compounds the problems of urbanization as rising incomes lead to greater production of waste per capita. In Los Angeles, rapid urbanization starting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to the emergence of waste management as an issue of concern to municipal authorities. Later, as the metropolitan area dramatically expanded both geographically and in terms of population, the amount of waste produced escalated while the opportunities for easily disposing of it became fewer and further between. Municipal officials have constantly tinkered with new technologies, or new versions of old technologies, as they have sought solutions to this seemingly intractable problem of how to manage the discards of urbanindustrial society without bankrupting the public treasury, inducing political rebellion, or causing intolerable environmental damage. The history of waste management in Los Angeles is a particularly clear-cut story of how urban growth continually undermines the capacity of local authorities to effectively address environmental externalities produced by urban-