Sacramento Has New Recycling/Waste-transfer Station

The City of Sacramento (CA) officially opened its state-of-the-art recycling-and-transfer station on Dec. 9. The facility, near Fruitridge and Florin-Perkins roads, is expected to accept up to 1500 tpd of waste from the city's businesses and residents.

The U.S.$20 million facility, which showcases the latest technology for a material recovery, will be operated by BLT Enterprises, which operates similar facilities in Oxnard, Los Angeles and Burbank.

The recycling-and-transfer station will employ more than 100 sorters of recyclables, who will divert from landfill approximately 30% of the commercial material taken to the facility. The facility would help Sacramento meet state mandate requiring it to divert 50% of its waste by the year 2000.

The city's waste, which had been going to the country's landfill on Kiefer Blvd since Sacramento's B Street landfill closed in 1994, will now go to the new facility.

"City garbage trucks will no longer have to drive thousands of extra miles each day to the county landfill," said Reina Schwartz, Sacramento's solid waste manager. This will result in decreased fuel usage, increased air quality, and reduced need for additional trucks and drivers."

Adjacent to the recycling and transfer station is the city's soon-to-open, permanent household-hazardous-waste (HHW)-collection facility. It will accept toxic materials such as paint, air, batteries, and antifreeze. The HHW facility will be open on Fridays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., by appointment only.

Against the backdrop of rapidly increasing costs to dispose of waste, combined with the State mandate to reduce land-filled waste, the City of Sacramento has embraced a number of programs designed to ease the reliance on burying garbage.

Contact: Solid Waste Division, City of Sacramento, Oary Van Dorst, solid waste planning superintendent. Tel: 916-264-7561.

Edited by Paul Hersch