Los Angeles’ Puente Hills Landfill Closes

The Los Angeles-area Puente Hills Landfill, one of the largest landfills in the United States, closed at the end of October.

The facility, owned and operated by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, did business for 56 years before it stopped accepting waste Oct. 31, the county said in a news release. It will take 12 to 18 months to close the landfill, including the final cover and other closure work.

After closure, filled areas of the landfill will be available to the county Department of Parks and Recreation for the development of a park.

“The closure ends an era of cost effective and environmentally sound landfilling operations at the facility, which has been a model for landfills across the country,” stated Grace Robinson Chan, sanitation districts chief engineer and general manager.

The sanitation district operates five other facilities to meet the area’s waste management needs.

The Puente Hills Landfill has employed numerous approaches to waste management, including electricity from the landfill gas, operating a material recovery facility (MRF) and recycling programs.