Trash-fueled prosperity.

California's recycling law, which mandates that all cities divert at least 25 percent of their trash from landfills beginning in 1995, is spurring an explosion of jobs and revenues in Los Angeles County, waste industry experts said.

The revenues of recycling companies in L.A. County have more than doubled in the past four years. In that same period, the number of people employed in the local recycling industry has grown by almost 50 percent.

Driving the growth is AB 939, the state's recycling law, which mandates that cities divert at least 25 percent of waste from landfills beginning in 1995, and at least 50 percent beginning in the year 2000.

Diversion can take the form of waste reduction, composting, re-use, recycling, or a combination of these.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board recently projected that 25.4 percent of all the trash generated in the state during 1995 will be diverted from landfills, said Pat Macht, a board spokeswoman.

Plans pouring in

Under the law, each of the state's 528 cities and counties must turn in by Dec. 31 final plans on how it intends to meet the 25 percent diversion mandate, Macht said.

As of last week, 295 of those 528 jurisdictions had turned in plans, she said. "As we move near to the deadline, they are coming in fast and furiously," Macht added.

City and county officials all over the state spent "millions" on developing waste diversion plans since the state recycling law was passed in 1989, Macht said.

Under state law, municipal jurisdictions may be fined up to $10,000 a day if they fail to show "a good faith effort" to meet the requirements of the law, Macht said.

The board plans to develop an enforcement policy next year, detailing the procedures for doling out fines, Macht said. The board also plans to develop a policy spelling out ways in which the cities and counties can obtain assistance to comply with the law, she added.

State waste board officials have been working with city and county officials on draft plans for the past five years, she added. "No jurisdiction in the state has turned a blind eye to this law," Macht said.

Waste board representatives will begin measuring the amount of waste diverted next year, and will continue those measurements in future years, Macht said.

Sales, job growth soaring 

Joan Edwards, director of the City of Los Angeles' Integrated Solid Waste Management Office, citing a report by Omaha, Neb.-based American Business Information Inc., a business research and information service, said annual sales by recycling companies in the Los Angeles area have more than doubled in the past four years.

Specifically, those annual sales have grown from $297 million in 1991 to $741 million in 1994, she said. Also, employment at those companies has jumped from 1,727 people working at 155 sites in 1991 to 2,849 people working at 172 facilities in 1994.

Edwards noted that these numbers only reflect companies involved in collecting recyclables and processing or cleaning recyclables (for example de-inking paper products) for re-use.

The numbers do not include companies which manufacture products out of recycled materials -- the sector of the recycling industry that is growing the fastest nationwide.

Another indicator of growth in the local recycling market is an increased demand for recycled materials, Edwards said.

"The prices for recycled materials has gone through the roof in the last year," Edwards said. Prices for paper and plastic, especially, have increased, indicating "this is a flourishing new area of growth."

Statewide, there is an explosion in recycling jobs, according to a recent report by Californians Against Waste, a Sacramento-based environmental group dedicated to the recycling and re-use of waste.

"Statewide, the number of (recycling) jobs has grown from 14,000 in 1991 to 20,000 in 1994," said Lance King, community outreach director of Californians Against Waste. "And we expect the number of jobs to triple to roughly 60,000 by the end of the decade."

L.A. becomes major hub

Los Angeles is a major recycling center in the state, King added.

"Los Angeles-area re-use and recycling industries, ranging from the mom-and-pop recycling centers to the major (recycled materials) manufacturers, contribute over $1.2 billion to the local economy," King said.

Some growing recycling companies in the Los Angeles area include:

* Gridcore, a Long Beach-based company which produces a plywood-like product out of recycled paper. Gridcore employs 23 people and recycles about 50 tons of paper a month.

* Talco Plastics Inc., a Whittier-based company originally established in 1972 as a broker of industrial scrap. It switched its focus in 1990 to recycling plastic products.

In 1994, Talco opened a new facility in Long Beach. The facility has been designed to process 10 million tons of plastics a year -- including milk jugs, detergent bottles and other post-consumer plastics -- for re-use. Talco officials said they expect to create 50 new jobs at the facility next year.

* Alpert and Alpert Iron & Metal Inc., a Los Angeles-based company that processes scrap metals for re-use. The company operates facilities in L.A., Carson and Fontana and employs 300.