Los Angeles County Supes have approved a plan to keep 75 percent of the county's trash out of landfills by the year 2025. Part of the plan (Roadmap to a Sustainable Waste Management Future) includes building a plant that would turn funky methane gas, produced when food, wood, and green waste (like yard clippings) break down, into compressed natural gas; that gas would then be used to power buses, cars, and buildings. Food, wood, and green waste make up about 60 percent of what's in LA landfills today, says KPCC, so that would make a big dent in the pile-up.
The new plan would also require that "a whole new infrastructure", says a rep for the Department of Public Works, as the recycled food will have to be transported via special trucks to facilities that are up to health and safety standards for food recycling. The county's hoping to have the first such facility ready to accept trash in about five years.
Impressively, LA County already channels about 50 percent of its trash away from landfills.
· LA County unveils a 10-year plan to divert 75 percent of trash from landfills [KPCC]
· Trash Talk [Curbed LA]
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