Before 1961 trash removal in the Los Angeles area consisted of three separate services: wet trash removal (food waste, etc), bottles and cans, and dry garbage and trash. Until 1957 dry trash was burned in backyard Los Angeles incinerators. This contributed greatly to Los Angeles’ notorious pollution problems. In 1957 backyard incinerators and trash burning was banned, but trash still had to be separated and picked up separately. 

In 1961 Sam Yorty ran for Mayor of Los Angeles. A key portion of his platform of reforms was stopping the three separate trash pick ups and combining them into one single trash pick up. Yorty went as far as dumping bags of trash on the steps of City Hall to illustrate how difficult it was for a “normal housewife” to separate trash.

The 1960 / 1961 Los Angeles’ Mayoral race was one of the ugliest and most brutal elections in history (probably rivaled by Yorty’s reelection race against Tom Bradley in 1969). And trash removal defined that race. 

It’s up for debate whether Sam Yorty’s race against separate trash removal was good or bad for the city. But it is largely irrelevant now since modern day Los Angeles has expanded trash removal to include recycling bins at every home and most apartments.

Most cities have certain days, typically twice a year, where they take toxic materials like paint and dispose of them. If you need to get rid of paint and hazardous materials right away, call a junk removal service. A junk removal service specialize in disposing of paint, motor oils, household chemicals, and electronics.