It lacks the excitement of police or fire protection, but garbage collection is one of the most basic city services.
While the city of Sacramento has been spending a lot of time lately looking into an exotic new process – plasma-arc gasification – to dispose of its garbage, its current method of disposal needs urgent attention.
For a decade now, Sacramento has been trucking its garbage to the deserts of Nevada for disposal. Some two dozen trucks travel 284 miles round trip every night. The cost and the pollution associated with long-haul disposal are unacceptable. The city sends garbage to Nevada because years ago the county-run Kiefer landfill had some environmental problems and was too expensive.
That's no longer the case. The county has upgraded Kiefer and its fees are more competitive. For months, the city has been negotiating a deal to shift garbage from Nevada to Kiefer. Agreement has been reached on a short-term contract to use the North Area Recovery Station to process up to 25,000 tons of city garbage. Material not recycled would be sent to Kiefer for disposal.
But that's only a fraction of city garbage. Most would continue to go to Nevada. The city needs to do more. It's time to end the long-simmering feud between the city and county over Kiefer.
The city could help solve the problem by recycling more of its trash. The environmental organization Californians Against Waste estimates that 65 percent of the 146,000 tons of waste the city sends to landfills every year could be recycled, composted or otherwise recovered.
When he was running for office, Mayor-elect Kevin Johnson didn't talk a lot about garbage. But when he gets into office, it will be one of the more unpleasant city responsibilities he and the council need to address.
Early in his term, Johnson ought to kick-start a more productive dialogue with county supervisors over garbage. And he should lead the city and its residents into a new era of recycling.
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