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Solid Waste

p8 big - option 2Rotting organic waste like paper and food in landfills produces methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas. In 2009 when Sonoma County was considering selling its landfill to an Arizona-based corporation, the Climate Protection Campaign successfully helped block the sale because the proposed sale agreement did not encourage recycling and composting.

Since the deal was stopped, we’ve worked intensely with business, government and community leaders to create and implement new goals and solutions for the County’s solid waste system. We aspire for this collaboration to be a model to show how this community comes together to tackle complex problems.

Some specific programs we promote to keep organic material from being landfilled include more advanced facilities for sorting garbage and requiring construction and demolition debris to be sent to reuse and recycling facilities. We also produced research on the feasibility of using anaerobic digestion to create electricity from waste organic material.