San Fran Jam

San Francisco may only have five years of landfill capacity left. According to San Francisco city documents, the city could reach it's contracted quota at the Altamont Landfill (owned by Houston-based Waste Management) as early as 2014. In response, San Francisco accepted bids from three landfill operators interested in taking the roughly 500,000 tons of nonrecycled and noncomposted residential and commercial waste the city produces annually. Distance is a factor as the San Fransico Board of Supervisors chooses whether to renew the Altamont (located 62 miles east of the city) contract with Waste Management or opts for the Ostrom Road Landfill (133 miles northeast), owned by San Francisco-based Norcal Waste Systems, or the Keller Canyon Landfill (42 miles northeast), owned by Phoenix-based Republic Services.

San Francisco, which boasts the highest diversion rate in the country at 70 percent, has set a zero waste goal by 2020, though it still expects to be producing residual waste at that time.

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