DIAPER TAX SOUGHT BY STATE LEGISLATOR.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - An Oakland legislator has joined Santa Clarita's fight against the mounds of dirty diapers buried every day in landfills throughout the state.

Democratic Sen. Don Perata introduced a bill Thursday that would impose a quarter-cent tax on the disposable diapers that new parents buy by the bushel in the hopes of reducing the thoroughly unpleasant melange of Pampers, Luvs and Huggies now filling landfills from San Francisco to San Diego.

``Disposable diapers just don't belong in our state's landfills, for both environmental and public health reasons,'' Perata said.

The money raised by the tax would be used to pay for local diaper recycling programs, and would cost families $12 to $15 per child, Perata said.

Santa Clarita is halfway through a first-in-the-nation pilot program that has recycled about 14 tons of dirty disposable diapers, city officials said.

``We absolutely agree that diapers are a growing problem, and that's why were doing the pilot program,'' said Planning Director Jeff Lambert. ``We're pleased that Sen. Perata has recognized the problem.''

Disposable diapers can take up to 500 years to decompose, and more than 20 billion of them were sent to U.S. dumps in 2000, officials said.

The Santa Clarita City Council has not yet taken a stand on Perata's bill, Lambert said.

Using a state-of-the-art machine in Sun Valley, Knowaste, a private company, is separating the nastier parts of the diaper from the shell, which can be made into shingles and plastic ``wood.'' In addition, the absorbent lining of the diaper can be recycled to make wallpaper and oil filters, company officials said.

If the City Council decides diaper recycling is worthwhile and expands it citywide after the six-month trial, residents would have to pay an extra charge or the program would have to be subsidized by the state, perhaps through a tax similar to the one proposed by Perata, officials said.