Los Angeles is expanding its efforts to be the recycling-est city in the country. Starting Tuesday, residents can throw milk, juice, soup and wine cartons into their blue bins. The inclusion of cartons in L.A.'s curbside recycling program could divert as much as 430 tons of waste from landfills.

New York, Chicago and Philadelphia already have carton recycling programs, as do almost 200 other California cities, including Oakland, Sacramento and Long Beach.

"This is a big deal in the sense that we’ll be the largest city in the state that has a carton recycling program," said L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "It solidifies our position as the No. 1 recycling city in the nation."

In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, L.A. recycled 211,300 tons of waste through its curbside program. L.A. currently diverts 65% of the 10.1 million tons of trash it generates annually –- more than any other large city in the United States.

"We’ll be at 70% by the time I leave office," in 2013, Villaraigosa said. "That’s our goal. We want to be a zero waste city one day, and although that’s a high threshold, every year we’re working toward that.