Mapping the Waste Stream of Southern California

About the issue and the project

One of the main issues with waste is that it needs to be transported. Local landfills have long since been replaced by large, regional landfills, where waste from more metropolitan areas is gathered, then sent to be buried in a faraway location. When a garbage truck picks up your weekly curbside waste, that waste will likely make its way to a landfill or recycling facility only after it has traveled many miles on interstate and highways, passing several transfer stations. In some cases, your trash will cross multiple county lines, or perhaps a state line, before it is finally recycled or landfilled.

Using the region of Southern California as a case study, we would like to investigate the real environmental impact of transporting waste in the era of mega-landfills? Do waste-by-rail projects, such as Los Angeles' Mesquite Regional Landfill, result in lower greenhouse gas emissions and do they offer a less deleterious solution as we make our way toward a zero-waste society.

The process of sending waste to transfer stations and to other municipalities also has the effect of obscuring the waste picture for a town or city. This effect can be quite serious, since not knowing how much waste your town produces or knowing where it goes can result in real difficulties when advocating for and implementing responsible waste policies in everyday policy decisions. This can also present problems when researching and responding to environmental impact reports.

People who are involved

Project Lead: Sara Sage

Participants: If you are interested in being involved with this project, please comment below, contact the Project Lead, write a research note, join the LA Google Group and drop a noe, or directly contribute to this wiki.

Groups: Students at Learn Beyond the Book in Santa Clarita, California, including instructor, Elizabeth Rydall, who teaches the class, "Art & Science of Recycling, Repurposing & Re-using"

Join us to chat here on the LA Google Group

Next steps:

What are we working on now:

Uploading and ongoing analysis of CalEPA/CalRecycle waste-origin data

Developing a unit lesson plan for educators who ware interested in investigating their local waste stream with students -- with hands-on educational activities and options by grade level

Investigating the potential of GPS-tracking technology to analyze (near) real-time movement of waste in Southern California.

Developing outreach and partnerships with organizations that promote understanding of waste and zero-waste policies

Updates

Activities we’ve done in our project

Data

Stay tuned for spreadsheets...

Questions

What is the definition of Southern California?

Where do waste regions end and begin?

What type of awareness/advocacy tools can we develop as a result of this project? _(i.e. infographics, spreadsheets, long-form articles, animation).

Resources

We have: data from CalEPA and CalRecycle

We’re looking for: individuals with expertise in calculating and modeling GHG emissions of waste-industry traffic; an individual willing to spearhead a GPS-tracking project; artists with film/animation skills, graphic design skills, as well as pen-and-paper skills; educators with experience writing lesson plans; as well as individuals who are interested in gathering, sorting and analyzing state and local data

__ Our project tag: SoCalWasteStream

Others we follow: