L.A. dumps haulers: trash cronyism.

• Author: Shackford, Scott
• Position: Citings - California

IN A BLOW against choice and competition, Los Angeles city leaders voted in April to force all local businesses and apartment complexes to pay an exclusive contractor to haul away their trash.

Prior to the council vote, businesses and apartment complexes could choose from any number of local private companies to take their garbage, while residential customers were served by the city. But now Los Angeles plans to divide the city up into ii districts and award each district to one exclusive contractor.

This trashing of capitalism and private choice was sold as an environmental measure. In order to win the contracts, the hauler has to provide recycling bins and use "clean fuel" vehicles, but critics noted that the city could mandate new environmental standards without resorting to carving Los Angeles up into a series of trash monopolies. Coby King, chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association in...