There’s death, taxes and now — garbage. So says California state Sen. Gloria Romero (D), who is concerned about the state’s increasingly inescapable waste problem. California’s population is expected to reach 40 million by the end of the decade, and Romero and others see a waste management nightmare in the combination of a mushrooming poor population often unable to make recycling a priority and an ultra-affluent consumer culture partial to items like disposable cell phones. Auditors and others say if you look hard at the stats, California’s reputation for leading the nation in recycling programs crumbles. The truth, says Mark Murray of Californians Against Waste, is that the state produces more trash per person than the national average.
