EDITORIAL GOOD NEIGHBORS WASTE MANAGEMENT REAPS REWARDS OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH.USUALLY, the sort of request that Waste Management is making of Sun Valley -- that the community be home to a massive trash-transfer and recycling center -- is the sort that would be greeted with serious skepticism, if not disgust. But upon first glance, members of the northeast San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. community are supportive, even optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op , that the company will try to address their concerns. What gives? What gives is that for two years Waste Management has worked to reach out to the local community. And when a company treats a community with respect, it tends to find itself surrounded by neighbors, not NIMBYs. So the people of Sun Valley are willing to give Waste Management's plan a fair hearing. They're happy that the company is heeding their wishes, and abandoning its plans to raise the height limit at Bradley Landfill by 43 feet. Instead, Bradley will close April 14. Residents are grateful that the company pledges to use top-of-the-line technology to reduce odors Odors anosmia Medicine. the absence of the sense of smell; olfactory anesthesia. Also called anosphrasia. — anosmic, adj. halitosis bad breath; an unpleasant odor emanating from the mouth. and pollution from the facility. And they're appreciative that it's working with the city to mitigate the impact of some 1,623 trucks -- nearly double the current total -- that will go to and from the facility each day. This is how intelligent business is done today: Companies work with their neighbors rather than steamroll steam·roll·er n. 1. a. A steam-driven machine equipped with a heavy roller for smoothing road surfaces. b. A similar machine with an internal-combustion engine. 2. them. Having donated $150,000 a year to Sun Valley area community groups, including $30,000 for neighborhood beautification beau·ti·fy tr. & intr.v. beau·ti·fied, beau·ti·fy·ing, beau·ti·fies To make or become beautiful. beau grants, Waste Management has created a deep reservoir of good will. And that good will goes a long way to explaining neighbors' receptive attitude toward the company's latest plans. Contrast that to the near-universal disdain in which another giant in the trash business, Browning-Ferris Industries Browning-Ferris Industries, or "BFI", is a licensed trademark of Allied Waste Industries, a North America waste collection company. Many local units of Allied Waste are still known as BFI in the markets they serve. , is held in Granada Hills, where it operates the Sunshine Canyon Landfill. Unlike Waste Management, BFI BFI - brute force and ignorance has used the blunt tools of political influence and power to achieve its objectives. It's spent a fortune on lobbyists and, more than once, simply rolled the Los Angeles City Council  The Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. -- while rolling over its community
in the process.
The strategy has worked in the short run, but it's engendered bad will from a community whose support it might one day need. Waste Management, on the other hand, has opted for engagement and cooperation, and seems to have discovered the formula for longevity in an increasingly difficult and unpopular industry. Neighbors will no doubt want to carefully examine the details of the company's planned, $17 million facility, but they'll do so with an open mind. There's a lesson here: Being a good neighbor is good business. |
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