A terrific article about the local dump.
It is certainly not the same place I remember from a dumping visit several years ago.
Good stuff!
Sacramento News & Review, June 28, 2007.
Day at the dump
On location at Kiefer Landfill
By Jennifer Davidson
I have never been so excited about a heap of trash! The moment Chris Andis, Sacramento County’s Waste Management and Recycling spokesperson, said our local Kiefer Landfill was an ecologically sound resource, I was hooked and ready to go.
Here was my mindset: Gulls circling overhead like buzzards over carcasses, that sweet pungent stench, and garbage mounds with swells large enough to rival a mountain range and ominous enough to earn the respect given to the sea from wide-eyed children who toyed with the anticipation of being swallowed alive and never seen again should they accidentally fall in. “What am I missing?” was all I could think.
On location at Kiefer Landfill, we met Keith Goodrich, a senior civil engineer who kindly took us on a tour of the site. "I'll drive you up the top so you've got a good view of the whole place," he said. That's exactly what I wanted—the chance to take in the whole enchilada.
We drove through the entrance, where a gentleman in waste screening speaks with each customer to find out what kind of materials they are disposing and directs them to the appropriate place on site. The dump is no longer a one-stop shop—it's almost a tiny little city.
Keith gives us the rundown. Disposed appliances will be stripped of chlorofluorocarbons and oils and sent to a metal recovery operation with other metal items recovered at the landfill. Tires are removed by contracted vendors to make such products as protective ground cover in climbing gyms and rubberized asphalt—the latest craze among parents in playground surfaces. Broken up concrete slabs are reclaimed and reused in road construction, which reduces the need to buy aggregate materials for constructing roads.
Green and wood waste has the greatest diversity when it comes to reuse. Some is reclaimed by vendors in the county for composting. Another portion is used as biomass to produce energy (super cool), and the remainder is processed onsite and used in place of soil as an alternative daily cover to help maximize the utilization of air space. Or, in other words, to squish the trash with incredible uniformity, which removes air pockets and uses space in the landfill most efficiently.
Everything else is considered mere trash and customers are directed toward the landfill—the final resting spot for as little waste as possible.
