From Waste to Resource: Restoring Our Economy with Recycling Careers

In this report, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) outline a new model for recycling job growth with the potential to encourage quality jobs and to improve the environment. LAANE is advocating for a transformation of the waste and recycling industry in Los Angeles while promoting good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment. Developing a clean recycling economy can be one of the greatest economic and environmental opportunities of our time. Despite a global resource crisis, Los Angeles is on the verge of transforming its waste and recycling system into a national model that will result in maximum recycling and reuse of materials for economic benefit, with government and industry as a strategic partner in managing resources, and a sustainable workforce infrastructure for skilled laborers, entrepreneurs, and innovators.