Waste reduction statistics in Westlake to be audited
By Michael Picarella
Acorn Staff Writer

After years of what’s assumed to be inaccurate reporting, the city of Westlake Village has begun to check the state’s solid waste monitoring system. Polis Associates, Inc. was contracted to study and report landfill trash tonnage numbers said to be erroneously given by haulers. Such negligence prevents the city from meeting a state mandate and from gaining recognition for a proactive stance on recycling and waste reduction.

Polis Associates, Inc, founded in 1994, has since provided Westlake Village with onsite waste reduction and recycling assistance, educational and outreach activities, and the city’s annual report to the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB).

In 1989, a state mandate said all cities must recycle 25 percent of their total waste or be fined up to $10,000 a day for noncompliance. In the year 2000, the law stated that the percentage be increased to 50 percent. According to David Polis of Polis Associates, Inc., 41 percent of waste in Westlake Village was reported as recycled this year.

"We know these numbers are bogus," Polis said. The origin of the incoming trash at the landfill has been incorrectly reported, he said. Much of the problem, Polis speculated, is from the haulers who aren’t contracted to serve Westlake Village but claim they handle the city’s waste. The problem is determining the Ventura and Los Angeles portions of Westlake.

"It’s a very poor monitoring system," Polis said. The haulers more or less yell out where their trash came from, he said, and sometimes it’s in different languages.

Polis has fought the state over the years and asked if he could use his own monitoring system, but was denied because the CIWMB only approves one monitoring system.

"We know exactly how much the haulers who operate in the city reported taking to landfills," Polis said. "The total amount of waste they said went to landfills from Westlake Village was almost double what actually occurs."

The true percentage of recycled items in Westlake Village this year, he said, is about 54 percent.

"The city of Westlake Village is facing the possibilities, at some point, of facing fines," Polis said. "And I don’t want to see that."

"We have a data base of everybody in Westlake Village—how many containers they have, how much recycling they do, where it goes, how often the trash gets taken—we have a pretty good handle on what’s going on in the city," Polis said.

"We’re going to be spending this next year," he said, "contacting people who bring stuff to the landfill that say it’s from the city Westlake Village and find out where the load really originated from. And, if necessary, we will check with the business or the address they say the load originated from to see if it in fact did. Then the state wants us, on somebody’s letterhead, to say, ‘Hey, we made a mistake’ to try and correct these errors."

The people of Westlake Village have been doing a very good job recycling, Polis said. And they should be given the credit they deserve.

Once a month, Polis and Associates, Inc. will obtain records from each landfill receiving Westlake Village garbage and determine the entities depositing waste during the monitoring period. If they aren’t one of the city’s haulers, they will be dealt with immediately and will be sent a letter to cease and desist collection services in the city until they have the proper permit.

"It’s a lot of bean counting," Polis said "and I would rather be dealing with showing people how to recycle more or how to recycle hard-to-recycle things. But it’s come down to bean counting."

The city of Westlake Village will go before the CIWMB in Sacramento around January or February, according to Polis. "At that time," he said, "they’ll look at the progress we’re making and decide what action they want to take."

To learn more about recycling, call the Polis Associates, Inc. hotline at 1 (800) 579-4979.