The most populous state in the United States, California produces massive amounts of waste each year and necessitates a powerful and diversified waste management system.
Landfills are still a necessary part of that system, even as the state sets ambitious waste reduction and recycling targets. Given California’s pledge to sustainability and conservancy, waste management has become an essential element of landfills balancing the demands of waste disposal and ecological impact.
Landfills in California
California has more than 300 landfills (active and closed) that manage municipal solid waste (MSW), construction and demolition debris, and industrial waste. Approximately 80 million tons of waste is produced every year in the state, where a substantial proportion is sent to landfills.
Indeed, despite concerted efforts to increase recycling and composting, in California roughly 40% of California waste still goes to landfills via dumpster trucks, demonstrating their critical importance in the waste hierarchy.
Today’s landfills in California are constructed with cutting-edge systems designed to limit environmental damage. These include:
- Liners to prevent leachate (liquid waste runoff) from tainting groundwater
- Systems to capture and treat leachate, or liquid waste
- Methane gas recovery systems used to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and convert captured landfill gas into energy
But the state also struggles with legacy landfills — which were built before current regulations and could carry environmental and safety risks.
Waste Generation and Landfill Capacity
California’s expanding population and economy create large amounts of waste, posing challenges for landfill capacity.
While the state has fewer active landfills than it did decades ago because of closures, it has robust capacity remaining in its active sites. Shedding light on the issue, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) notes that California’s operating landfills are projected to last decades to come, subject to trends in waste generation and diversion efforts.
However, certain areas are capacity constrained. Cities such as Los Angeles,. Riverside and the San Francisco Bay Area generate more garbage than their local landfills can accommodate, which means some refuse must be moved to other counties or states. This practice drives up costs and increases environmental impact from shipping emissions.
Environmental Concerns
Landfills are an often serious environmental issue and in a state as green-minded as California, they are an especially big issue. Key issues include:
- Methane Emissions: Landfills are the largest source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Though most California landfills collect and burn landfill gas for energy, this has only reduced, not eliminated, fugitive emissions from contributing to climate change. In response, the state adopted stringent methane reduction targets through its Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Reduction Strategy
- Groundwater Contamination: Leakage of leachate is a major issue, particularly in older or poorly maintained landfills. Even modern liners and collection systems produce leachate over the long term, and groundwater contamination must be monitored as a precaution
Once land for a landfill is gone, it may not be used again for decades—a conflict with needs for housing, parks, farming, expansions of cities, and natural areas. Closed landfills need decades of post-closure care, consuming land that could have other uses.
Regulatory Oversight
California has among the toughest landfill regulations in the country. CalRecycle regulates and enforces landfill operation compliance with both state and federal laws, such as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Some key regulatory requirements are as follows:
- Ambitious Waste Diversion Targets to Reduce Landfill Use
- Requirements for conserving gas from landfills
- Rigorous standards for landfill design, operation, and closure
California’s Integrated Waste Management Act (AB 939) mandates municipalities divert at least 50 percent of their waste from landfills. Most recently, SB 1383 established targets to reduce organic waste disposal and emitted methane, to further shift the focus from landfilling.
Things we can do to decrease reliance on landfills
Huge strides have been made in California to reduce reliance on landfills through recycling, composting and waste reduction.
According to a recent report, the state diverts roughly 60 percent of its waste through these programs. Yet still, issues such as recycled products being contaminated in recycling streams, or lacking composting infrastructure, have not yet allowed it to get to its end-game of zero waste.
-
California also invested in the following to further reduce reliance on landfills:
- Recycling and Composting Infrastructure: Investing in recycling and composting programs
- Public Education Campaigns: Encouraging residents and businesses to recycle and compost properly
- Extended Producer Responsibility: Making manufacturers responsible for the end-of-use life of their products
Closed and Legacy Landfills
California has hundreds of retired landfills that must be monitored and cleaned up over time.
Most of these older facilities have neither modern environmental safeguards nor systems to control methane, raising the risk of groundwater contamination and methane emissions. The state has reused some closed landfills for beneficial purposes, including parks, solar farms, and wildlife habitats, but remediation can be expensive and take years.
Future Challenges and Opportunities
California confronts several challenges in sustainable landfill management:
Population growth: As populations grow, waste generation is expected to increase, putting strain on existing landfill capacity.
Climate Change: Increasing temperatures and extreme weather events may worsen landfill problems, like methane emissions and leachate creation.
Volatility in Recycling Markets: Shifts in global recycling markets have complicated efforts to divert waste away from landfills.
What California can do about landfill management Despite these problems, there are significant opportunities in California. Increasing renewable energy projects like landfill gas-to-energy systems could cut emissions and power generation at the same time. Extending recycling and composting programs will also help the state get closer to its zero-waste goals.
Landfills are an indispensable but controversial element of California’s waste management system. Although substantial strides have been made reducing landfill dependence and improving environmental protections, significant challenges remain, including those associated with methane emissions, maintaining groundwater protective, and limited capacity. California will need to continue innovating in waste reduction, recycling, and renewable energy to ensure that its landfills make sense, both from a public health and environmental perspective.