Changes in the competition for city trash collection may mean efficiencies come at the expense of social equity

Few of us would think of looking to the trash can in search of social equity issues. But a multi-year study by Jing Wang and Erica McFadden in a southwestern US city raises the question of whether cities using private contractors for trash collection are trading social equity for efficiency, with Latino areas served by private contractors rating their trash services far lower than those living in other areas.