Recology victorious in new San Francisco landfill agreement

Dive Brief:

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors have voted to proceed with an agreement to transfer the city's landfill contract from Altamont Landfill in Alameda County, run by Waste Management, to the Hay Road Landfill in Solano County, run by San Francisco-based Recology.
Waste Management has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court challenging the contract awarding process. Waste Management had the landfill contract since 1987, but Recology now has contracts for all aspects of city waste management.
Environmental groups and Solano County and Contra Costa residents had objected the move, which involves 50 trucks a day traveling an additional 40 miles round trip through the counties. However the city approved the plan, saying it would have minimal environmental impact.

Dive Insight:

The San Francisco Planning Department already noted that no new construction or changes in current Recology operations within the city are proposed and no new construction or change in existing permits would be required at the Hay Road Landfill, according to Vacaville Reporter.

Senior Planner Paul Maltzer told the Patch the project would add one truck every 25 minutes to traffic, calling it "virtually unnoticeable." He added that extensive air quality studies showed the impact would be "less than significant."

But opponents raised social objections as well as environmental ones, noting that the new truck route goes through towns such as Richmond, which have greater minority and low-income populations. "I think it’s unconscionable for San Francisco not to look at what we’re doing to those communities," said Arthur Feinstein, leader of the Sierra Club’s Bay Chapter, to Livermore Patch. Similar objections have been raised in Washington D.C., Uniontown, AL and Tallassee, AL.

The objection to landfills taking trash from other areas is not unique to Northern California. In August, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA, introduced the Trash Reduction and Sensible Handling Act of 2015 to restrict the flow of out-of state waste into Pennsylvania. "Pennsylvania shouldn't be a dumping ground for trash from other states," Casey said.