San Francisco Transfer Station (a.k.a. the dump) is where all commercial and residential refuse goes to be sorted and sent somewhere else. Though it is built next to landfill, nothing has been dumped here since the 1960's. Now, like other wealthy cities, San Francisco can afford to send its trash burden to other far off communities. San Francisco's landfill is near Livermore at a facility called the Altamont Landfill, 62 miles away. Recology expects this landfill to reach capacity before 2015, so another site is being investigated in Yuba county, over 100 miles away. Unsurprisingly Yuba county's residents are fighting the proposal. Recycled materials are usually shipped to China (paper, cardboard and most plastic) while glass is recycled in California. Toxic wastes such as batteries and chemicals are shipped to Texas and incinerated.
Comments
HEY! Stop sending us your toxins!
— Catherine Hovell
Uh, more like stop offering to sell us the right to dump our toxins there for the lowest available price. Unfortunately, I think this has more to do with environmental policy in Texas than it does environmental policy in California. I think you're right to be upset about it though. I wonder where Texas's toxic waste goes.
— John Hovell
I gotta say that if we're taking other states' but then send ours elsewhere, there's something fundamentally wrong with the system.
— Catherine Hovell