A sad but true fact: Landfills eventually fill up. Officials say that for Gonzales’ Johnson Canyon Landfill, which is 50 years old today, roughly 38 years are left – but that’s an estimate.
A number of things can shorten or lengthen that lifespan; the most immediate is controlling the volume of waste sent into the landfill. On Aug. 20, the Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority board of directors discussed proposals for technology that could recover organics and recyclables from the waste stream. The proposals were submitted in response to a request for proposals released in February.
“I know change is very difficult for people, myself included, but we are burying all the garbage,” said Mandy Brooks, SVSWA resource recovery manager. “The amount of bottles and cans that are still in the trash every day is unbelievable.”
Three proposals were received; one of the three was dropped as it did not score high enough to be considered. Of the remaining two, Belgium-based company Dranco scored the highest, offering technology that would process 225,000 tons/year and extend the landfill’s lifespan by about 15 years. California company GreenWaste Recovery scored second highest, with a processing capacity of 75,000 tons/year and would extend the lifespan by about six years.
Despite the state’s Senate Bill 1383 organics mandate, which requires jurisdictions across California to divert food scraps from the landfill in an effort to reduce methane emissions, organic waste remains a majority of what is landfilled.
Officials say this isn’t a matter of compliance – Monterey County has established the infrastructure to collect and process food scraps, but food waste that isn’t sorted properly at home still ends up in the landfill.
“We’re the last stop on the train, there’s no going back,” SVSWA General Manager Cesar Zuñiga says. “That’s how it is with organics – whatever didn’t get recovered through the curb ends up at the landfill.”
Though 38 years may seem like a long time, so are planning timelines. When landfills have 15 years left of remaining life, they hit a regulatory trigger where the operator must start formally reporting their plans to state officials.
Advanced recovery technology is one way to extend the lifespan of the landfill, but would come with a cost. The current tipping fee for customers is $70/ton, which is low compared with neighboring regions. Use of GreenWaste’s technology would raise that fee to $120/ton, while Dranco would bring it to $175/ton.
The board will assess other ways to prolong the landfill’s lifespan, including expanding its size or depth, which has already been done once before at Johnson Canyon Landfill. Zuñiga says a strategic planning session with the board will be held early November.
“New landfills are very hard to permit in California. I think the last one that got permitted was in 2008,” Zuñiga says. “We want to make sure we have a solution for our ratepayers.”