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Judge Rules In Favor Of Glendale Over Trash-To-Energy Lawsuit

A view of Glendale's landfill.
(Courtesy of Sue Breding - Glendale)
A view of Glendale's landfill.

Glendale has been embroiled in a years-long lawsuit over a recycling facility that was supposed to divert trash and turn it into energy.

A judge recently ruled in favor of the city, saying Glendale’s 2012 agreement with the recycling facility did not require the city to alter the waste it sent the company.

The facility brought a $200 million claim against the city, saying its production was stalled due to yard waste in the trash.

The business, Vieste, was supposed to sell the energy produced by Glendale’s garbage but that never happened.

Glendale assistant city attorney Nancy Mangone said the judge decided Vieste never met its part of the contract after refusing 300 loads of city trash.

“Rejecting all of those loads was not acting in good faith," Mangone explained. "And so the judge said 'you really didn’t come into commercial operation,' a defined term in the contract.”

Vieste lawyer Rob Carey says the company will appeal the decision.

“One thing that’s going to be clear when we get to the court of appeals is that it’s a very ambiguous contract," he said. There [are] terms that are used inconsistently and it’s a mess.”

Pre-sorting trash before going to the recycling facility is an expensive and difficult process, according to Mangone.

“All we agreed to do was provide you with our normal municipal solid waste," she said. "And yes, as everybody knows, normal municipal solid waste contains some amount of yard waste.”

Carey says the future of Vieste’s trash-to-energy facility is up in the air.

Casey Kuhn was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2015 to 2019.