By J. David Myers

My dad was born in pre-smog Los Angeles, and if it weren't for World War II I would have been a native Californian, too. I am very happy living on the beautiful Monterey Peninsula, but often miss the "good" old days when there were fewer people and we had a part-time legislature. Life was a lot simpler growing up in the '50s in Chico in northern California. You could ride in the back of a pickup truck, or on a bike without a helmet. Recycling was something that people did during the war when raw materials were in short supply. Today, in spite of their liberalism, Californians are among the most heavily regulated people on the planet. Thank God we can still chew gum in public!

I got my first taste of the solid waste business when, as a teenager, I made regular trips to the Chico dump (and it was a dump in the true sense of the word) to drop off sheet metal scraps and other debris from my dad's air conditioning and sheet metal business. In addition to learning how to drive, I learned two important lessons during those dump visits: first, that scrap metal has recycling value, and second, that my dad's truck was too long to make a sharp turn into the dump without hitting the concrete blocks at the entrance. After ruining two expensive tires I was told not to drive the truck anymore. As a direct result I will never own an RV.

In 1968, after graduating from college and working briefly in retail sales, I went to work for the City of Pacific Grove as an accountant–administrative assistant. The city still used city crews to pick up the garbage, and the collection service seemed to take up more time at City Hall than all other city business combined. Everything changed in 1975 when the city franchised the garbage service and I became the liaison between the public and the local private hauler. That turned out to be a more efficient method of handling the city's trash. To this day I still believe that the private sector does the best job of collecting garbage. There are, of course, some very good publicly operated collection systems and, in the interest of flow control, public operation may be advantageous to some cities.

When it comes to landfills I feel very strongly about public ownership and operation. The Monterey Regional Waste Management District, which I have managed since 1979, has successfully owned and operated the Monterey Peninsula landfill since it opened in 1966. Over the years we have heard the horror stories about poorly run dumps that have become Superfund sites. The old Chico dump was a good example. I have always believed that since the public will have to live with old dumps and landfills forever, the public had better be very careful about what goes into them, and how they are constructed, managed, and closed. Hopefully, the many privately owned landfills will not become problems for future generations. Some owners have deep pockets and should be in business long enough to take care of future problems, but others have so much accumulated debt that the public should seriously worry about their ability to provide adequate post-closure care. I have also been concerned about the large companies' primary interest in providing a good rate of return to their stockholders, sometimes at the expense of their customers and the public they serve.

Do landfills leak? Sure, some do, but to say that all will eventually leak is absolute nonsense! A well-constructed Subtitle D landfill in a relatively dry climate should not leak. How can anyone say that all landfills will leak when most liners have been in place for less than 10 years? Most landfills will be capped before there is any serious deterioration to their liners. We have not experienced any groundwater problems under our landfill since the first liners were installed in 1988. Part of our success may be due to the fact that we have been collecting and utilizing our landfill gas for more than 20 years. Most experts now say that much of the contamination that has occurred in groundwater beneath landfills is a result of uncontrolled landfill gas. It's too bad that only a few hundred of the thousands of open and closed sites have active landfill gas systems. We are wasting an incredible amount of valuable energy. Our facility currently produces enough power for 4,000 homes!

According to the California Journal, California is one of only four states (with Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York) that have full-time legislatures. As a result, every year we have too many new solid waste–related bills, including some landfill bans. That particular issue is so serious that the California SWANA legislative task force has adopted this motto: "Don't Ban Without a Plan." State regulators are part of the problem, but their actions are usually the direct result of unnecessary legislation. Why did the federal government require lined landfills if state governments are going to ban everything that goes into them? We are currently dealing with banned TVs and monitors, and soon will have to deal with just about anything that plugs into the wall.

Of course, not all legislation is bad. The AB939 recycling law has saved valuable resources, including landfill space, and created a lot of positive programs that otherwise would not have been considered. The goal of zero waste is nice but unrealistic unless it is considered in the same vain as world peace. I consider myself an environmentalist and avid recycler, but also a pragmatist. I strongly believe in diverting waste from disposal if it can be done in a cost-effective manner. Our organization could not afford to operate our material recovery facility (MRF), household-hazardous-waste (HHW) facility, school education, and other programs, however, without income generated from the landfill. Unfortunately, the landfill has to compete with privately owned landfills that do not provide these other valuable services.

As my friend Jerry Powell, editor and publisher of Resource Recycling magazine, asked in the September 2004 issue, "Have you noticed that many of the most outspoken and vocal proponents of zero waste concepts have no active role in any waste management system, other than as waste and recycling generators?" When those garbage trucks are rolling in and your board of directors is after you to keep down costs in this difficult economy, it is hard to think of zero waste. On the other hand, when residents and businesses use their curbside recycling programs, and the self-haulers drop off their recyclables at our z-wall and HHW and reusable stuff at the "Last Chance Mercantile" before going across the scale on the way to the MRF, and the greenwaste and biosolids are composted, and the landfilled wet garbage is converted to landfill gas, which is turned into electricity, we may be moving closer to zero waste.

When I retire at the end of this year I look forward to traveling around this great state even though the highways are crowded and littered. I will not miss dealing with the legislators and regulators and their often misguided attempts to make this a better place. I hope that the "Governator" will be successful in streamlining state government, including the return to a part-time legislature! I hope that more jurisdictions build "resource recovery parks" like ours, that new conversion technologies become more cost-effective, and that less waste has to be buried or burned. Landfills are becoming as difficult to permit as waste-to-energy plants, which have not been considered seriously for years due to air-quality issues. Something better happen soon, before more of our waste follows the waste from our state capital to Nevada or other states with less-restrictive disposal and recycling laws. I wish all of my SWANA, CRRA, and other waste industry friends the best of luck!

J. David Myers is general manager of the Monterey Regional Waste Management District.

MSW - January/February 2005