California
One South Bay school flouts California recycling law — but few complain
Editor’s Note: This article was written for Mosaic Vision, an independent journalism training program for high school students who report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.
Like many other high schools, Los Gatos High School strives to make students better citizens who are knowledgeable about the impact of climate change. The issue is part of the school’s curriculum in advanced placement Environmental Science, Biology, Government, and English classes.
But when students need to dispose of their recyclable waste, there is no option but to toss everything into the solid waste garbage bin. The cafeteria serves food to around 1,200 students each day, creating a mountain of aluminum, plastic, and uneaten food. Yet composting, as well as recycling for aluminum and plastic, are not available options.The cafeteria recycling bins are padlocked shut during the day, with Los Gatos High offering recycling only for clean paper.
The school’s non-recycling stance contradicts California’s recycling laws. When the state’s Mandatory Commercial Recycling law took effect in June, 2012, public entities that generated a specified threshold of solid waste were required to “reuse, recycle, compost, or otherwise divert solid waste from disposal,” according to CalRecycle, the state entity responsible for recycling.
CalRecycle’s website clearly spells out the rules as they apply to schools: “Wherever recycling or organic waste is generated, a school must provide an appropriate container adjacent to the solid waste container to capture and divert recycling and organic waste. Containers must be easily accessible, visible, and clearly labeled.”
If the law is so straightforward, why isn’t the school complying?
A big issue was the contamination of the recycling bins with non-recyclable materials. Students were dumping non-recyclable garbage into the recycling bins to the point that, in 2021, the school’s Environmental Outreach Club decided to ask the school to padlock the bins to prevent students from disposing unsorted materials into them.
The school does collect recyclable paper in cardboard containers throughout the school – and the bins essentially are used as a collection point for that recycled clean paper – but not material generated from cafeteria lunches.
Despite acknowledging his familiarity with Senate Bill 1383, the state’s recycling legislation, Principal Kevin Buchanan stands firmly behind the school’s policy of non-compliance. “I occasionally notice one or two [recycling bins] with missing locks and I put in a work order to have them replaced,” he said.
CalRecycle only investigates school compliance if someone files a complaint. That’s something that rarely happens, to the degree that “Enforcement staff did not receive any complaints or referrals last year for school districts, so no local education agencies were evaluated in 2023,” said Lance Klug, a CalRecycle spokesperson.
Even as schools like Los Gatos High get a free pass on not recycling, the state is widening efforts to encourage recycling by passing laws as a new Edible Food Recovery law, which took effect on Jan. 1. It requires local education agencies with an on-site cafeteria to donate all uneaten and unused food to a food recovery organization and keep records about their donations.
Some students feel that the school could comply with recycling laws if it did a more aggressive job of educating students about what to recycle and how to properly do it.
“I think that we should have more clubs that teach people how to recycle. No one at our school has explained that type of stuff. ” said Kiana Mehrany, senior.
“I always see everyone throwing away the food and the trash in the same trash can,” said junior Haley Jung. “Nobody is doing recycling at the school except for paper, but I think that’s not going well.”
While some area schools have much more efficient recycling programs, the students have similar attitudes. Evergreen Valley High School Student Minh-Khang Le thinks his San Jose school’s program, which involves recycling bins that easily divide waste into trash recycling and composting, does a good job. However, he thinks that more people should be better educated on recycling, saying “some students don’t think too much about it and put everything in a nearby bin that looks like trash.”.
Amanda Robison, a student at Leigh High School in San Jose, mirrors Le’s beliefs, expressing concern that no matter what their school does, it is only as effective as the students’ willingness to actually recycle, saying “they’ll just throw stuff in whatever bin is closer.”
Meanwhile, unless anyone officially complains, Los Gatos High’s non-recycling approach is unlikely to change.
For those who want to take that step, CalRecycles spokesperson Klug says complaints may be filed online.
California GOP delegates Roxanne Hoge and Elizabeth Barcohana join Trace Gallagher to discuss multiple issues impacting California.
California GOP delegates Roxanne Hoge and Elizabeth Barcohana dissect the state’s pressing issues with Trace Gallagher. They criticize the SF Giants’ ‘Pride Night’ controversy and players’ right to religious expression. The delegates also discuss Los Angeles’s economic decline and Sacramento’s expensive homeless campsite, highlighting concerns about over-regulation and social issues. They conclude by addressing California’s large-scale Medicaid fraud, suggesting a lack of accountability.
Oakdale’s first Pride event is moving forward this weekend after organizers changed venues following pushback over its original location and a planned drag performance.
Some residents pushed back over the event’s original location at Dorada Park and a planned drag performance.
“I also understand staff has issued a permit for a so-called Pride event,” one speaker said during the latest City Council meeting.
Another speaker raised concerns about the event being advertised as open to all ages, including children, and having a drag queen host.
After the public pushback, organizers moved the event indoors to the Bianchi Center.
“It was a huge upgrade to be able to provide a more accessible space in the heart of Oakdale,” said Ryan Hall, president of CalPride.
Hall said the idea to bring Pride to the city did not come from outside Oakdale, it came from people living there.
“That’s my place as a mom of rainbow kids, absolutely,” said Elizabeth May, owner of Sisters Coffee.
May’s coffee shop hosts a monthly LGBTQ+ social.
“I had a young man walk in here and say, ‘We don’t have anywhere to have a social here for LGBTQ.’ I said, ‘Heck yes,’” May said.
Still, the backlash has left parents like May concerned.
“How does it feel? Scary. I’m excited, but as a mom of a kid in the community, I’m nervous for them,” May said.
May said the venue change helped ease some of the tension.
“The different venue made a win-win situation for everyone. I was very proud of the kids for making that hard decision,” May said.
For organizers, the drag performance is part of the celebration.
“Enjoy some line dancing, enjoy some live music, enjoy the drag show, and then also enjoy community members and our local businesses, our local artists and partner organizations,” Hall said.
Oakdale Pride is scheduled for Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Entry is free.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is considering a run for president as he approaches the end of his term, called for a national “billionaires’ tax” on Friday even as he fights another proposal targeting the wealthy in his home state.
Newsom also said the U.S. government should own a stake in artificial intelligence companies. His proposals, outlined in a Substack post, aligns him with the Democratic Party’s populist left, and he argued that urgent changes are needed to prevent the elite concentration of wealth and power from undermining democracy.
“It’s time for an economic reset for America,” Newsom wrote.
The governor announced his agenda a day after an influential health care union in California pledged to go forward with a ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026.
Newsom opposes that measure, as do many of the liberal interest groups that typically favor higher taxes. They fear it would drive billionaires out of California, eroding the state’s tax base over the long term for a one-time influx of cash. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other state — a few hundred, by some estimates.
“You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do,” Newsom wrote. “Wealth is movable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes. The fight belongs at the federal level, where this broken system was created in the first place.”
A minimum tax on large net worths
Newsom said the solution is a new national tax policy, rather than a state-by-state system. He proposed a minimum tax on anyone with a net worth above $100 million. He also wants to make it illegal for the wealthy to borrow against their stock portfolios to fund their luxury lifestyles tax free.
Newsom said there should be new rules for inheritance taxes, warning that “the transfer of wealth among the ultra-wealthy will lock in a permanent American aristocracy of inherited wealth.” And he wants to raise corporate tax rates to where they were before President Donald Trump’s first-term tax cut.
READ MORE: Sanders and Newsom clash over proposed tax on California’s billionaires
The need is especially urgent as artificial intelligence threatens to displace workers and further concentrate wealth, he wrote.
“We need to ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI through a national public equity fund that takes a major stake in the new economy,” he wrote. “Simply, as artificial intelligence reshapes the country, every American should own a piece of the future it builds.”
Revenue generated by his proposals could be used to retrain workers, fund universal child care, make college free and increase funding for health care.
‘Money buys influence’
Newsom, who has drawn attention as one of Trump’s most high-profile political antagonists, is getting an early start on laying out a policy framework for his potential White House bid months before the midterm elections, which have typically marked the informal start of overt presidential campaigning.
WATCH: News Wrap: Newsom says Trump ordering DOJ to investigate him and wife
The embrace of a wealth tax by Newsom, a moderate on tax policy despite his liberal reputation, signals a notable shift in the political landscape since Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren struggled to get traction in her 2020 campaign, which she largely centered around a 2% levy wealth tax.
Newsom portrayed the nation’s tax code as a corrupt system built to help an elite few.
“Money buys influence, and influence rewrites the rules,” he wrote. “Those rewritten rules funnel even more wealth to the few. Under this weight, democracy itself starts to buckle.”
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