This story put me in mind of an article we published a couple years ago in Waste News about a falcon trainer who was hired by a landfill in California to bring his raptors out for periodic fly-arounds to chase away nuisance birds. As I recall, the technique worked like a charm. And sure enough, down at the end of the above-cited Palm Beach article, there is mention of a bald eagle that nests at a Wal-Mart near the landfill. Said predator is good for sporadic fly-bys that send the problem birds beelining for safer ground. (The chickens!) But only for a little while. Eventually the fusty feast always draws them back for more.

It seems to me that a gold mine awaits the entrepreneur who can figure out how to get more birds of prey to either live in the area or drop by periodically. I know, I know -- easier said than done. But so what? Since when are gold mines supposed to be easy pickings? And I´m sure there are a lot of other landfills that could use a more dependable way to deal with this type of problem.

Is the sun setting on Sunshine Canyon for keeps? The longtime Los Angeles landfill´s days may be winding down, says this article from the Los Angeles Daily News. Six companies recently submitted bids to take L.A.´s trash outside city limits for disposal. Meantime, the city´s current hauler, Browning-Ferris Industries, is seeking a renewal of its five-year contract to continue disposing of the city´s garbage at Sunshine Canyon.

The last time Los Angeles sought alternative trash options, only one company put in a bid, says L.A. Councilman Greg Smith, who has spearheaded the effort to halt the city´s use of the Sunshine Canyon site.

In a related editorial, the L.A. Daily News says phooey on city officials who continue to insist that Sunshine Canyon is the only way to go. No, I mean it, I´m not being figurative or silly (just this once) -- they really do say that: "Phooey on the Los Angeles city leaders who still argue, after all these years, that we have no choice but to dump our trash at the Sunshine Canyon landfill in Granada Hills."

Many are the times I´ve come just this close to kicking off an editorial with the words "phooey on." And now those turkey vultures at the L.A. Daily News have beat me to it. Shoot.

Pete Fehrenbach is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.