Dive Brief:

• San Francisco Planning Commission recently OK’d changing the disposal site for the city’s waste from the Altamont Landfill in Alameda County to the Recology Hay Road Landfill in Solano County.  
• "This project will increase the amount of (carbon dioxide) that's put in the atmosphere every year because you're taking an extra 40-mile roundtrip with each garbage truck every day, which is going to translate to 600,000 miles," said an attorney for the Solano County Orderly Growth Committee. 
• The city’s Planning Commission studied the potential air quality and traffic impacts for hauling to the new disposal site and found that trucking the waste to the new site would not be burdensome to the environment.

Dive Insight:

Despite concerns by residents and officials, the change in waste disposal destination will not require an environmental impact report. Under a contract that is slated to end 13 to 15 years (depending upon how long it takes for Recology to haul the 5 million tons of waste stipulated under the contract), the company will haul up to 5 million tons of waste to the Hay Road landfill.

 Proponents said less waste will end up in the landfill because of the new plan.