Dive Brief:

• After local authorities in Santa Fe, NM devised a plan to eliminate guns from the streets through a buyback program, the department soon discovered that it had no solution for the 2 tons of weapons it had collected from the program. 
• Officials took a year to decide what to do with 600 guns it obtained. The weapons were taken to the local landfill, bulldozed and covered with 500 tons of household trash. 
• Approximately 50 antique guns were donated to the New Mexico Military Museum, while 50 unusual guns were delivered to the State Crime Lab to be used in ballistics investigations. 

Dive Insight:

The guns were destroyed by the bulldozers to ensure the weapons were useless in the future.

Santa Fe's disposal is not the first example of waste companies managing criminal materials: In Pennsylvania, the police unit worked out a deal to incinerate 40 pounds of confiscated drugs at the York County Solid Waste Authority’s facilities.