How Los Angeles Liberals Socialized Recycling - And Ruined It

How Los Angeles Liberals Socialized Recycling – And Ruined It

January 4, 2018 By Robert Gehl

Los Angeles has a massive problem.
Like every other major city, they have a lot of trash and recycling.
For a good while, Hot Air reports, they did a pretty good job dealing with both and by their analysis, LA was a pretty clean place.

That is, of course, until they turned to some socialist ideas. They came up with a scheme called “RecycLA” which they said would deal with recycling more efficiently, improve the city’s “green footprint” and – most important – ensure that everyone working in the recycling industry could earn a “living wage.”
Therein lies the problem.
Just a very short time after implementation, the whole system started to fall apart. The Los Angeles Times reports that things completely spiraled out of control.

RecycLA, which serves businesses and apartment and condo complexes, was in the planning stages for years but has had what a kind person might call a bumpy rollout.
Others have called it a disaster, a ripoff and a mess. One property manager I spoke to Tuesday had a thought as to who might be in charge.
“This is just literally like the Three Stooges,” said Robert Kilian, who works for Cardinal Management Group and handles the business affairs of 22 homeowner associations in Los Angeles — most of which have had problems with late pickups or price hikes.
Kilian said the 12 homeowners in Hajibekyan’s building had been paying $389 a month for hauling, but that the new bill is more than double that — $825.
There have been reports of costs tripling and even quadrupling for other customers, due in part to added fees tacked on.

So, back when recycling was handled by private companies in a competitive bidding system, recycling was gathered two times per week. Now, it takes two weeks to get a single pickup. Trash builds up in basements and parking garages like “rat-infested mountains.” Prices have doubled and service is cut in half.
“This is just literally like the Three Stooges,” said Robert Kilian, who works for Cardinal Management Group and handles the business affairs of 22 homeowner associations in Los Angeles — most of which have had problems with late pickups or price hikes.
As Hot Air’s Jazz Shaw puts it:

So what went wrong, aside from the fact that the government decided to take over managing the show? The Times reports that the city was faced with the choice of, “maintaining a level of competition among haulers, or they could award exclusive contracts to haulers for designated sectors of the city.” Which one do you think they went with?
So there you have it. The City mandated a number of changes which removed competition, raised labor costs and micromanaged how much recycling would be done. And now there are steaming mountains of garbage in businesses, apartments and condo complexes around the city and the owners are being charged vastly increased costs. Well done, Los Angeles. You’ve really struck a blow for environmental justice, fair wages and a cleaner city.

One resident put it this way:

“We had competition before, and we would play one company against the other. Now with no competition, we’ve got no recourse,” he said.
His wife had one thing to add. “And the trash is everywhere.”