California newspapers ran articles in January 2026 about the abysmal performance of the State’s recycling program. The legislature adopted fixes to the program and we are now seeing a struggle between the packaging industry, CalRecycle, the Governor and the State Legislature over whose vision is going to win. Given the expectation for new laws, new lawsuits and rapidly-filling trash sites, there are a few basic facts that I would like to put on the table. Fact 1: Although there are altruistic...

This is a “shout out” to someone that I greatly admired. I first met Ronny Coleman while doing a study for the City of San Clemente,...

In 2013, I wrote an article looking at the big picture of contracting. I felt it made sense to contract if your agency was too small to...