The Emergence of Conversion Technologies in California as a Viable Alternative to Landfilling

In the 1980’s, California faced landfill siting problems and a projected shortage of landfill capacity that could impact the health and safety in California. To address this issue, the California Integrated Waste Management Act was passed in 1990 and established a framework to limit reliance on landfills. This framework gives greater emphasis to recycling, waste prevention, source reduction, and composting. The Integrated Waste Management Act required each city and county to implement plans to divert 25% of solid waste by 1995 and 50% by 2000 from landfills. Although we have achieved a 47% diversion rate and have 170 composting facilities, we still have approximately 30 millions tons of material being landfilled. This may be an untapped resource for energy and alternative fuels production.