Created 12-Jan-15
0 photos

At Cold Canyon Processing Facility, roughly seven miles south of San Luis Obispo, a variety of waste from around the county is processed from start to finish. Recyclable material is sorted by workers on the conveyor belt line and then compacted, green waste (including Christmas trees) is ground up and collected by a composting company, and trash goes into the Cold Canyon Landfill. Facility Manager John Ryan said the facility sees a significant 8 to 9.5 percent increase in tonnage of material received during the overall holiday season, with particularly sharp increases during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day as well as the two to three weeks after the new year commences. "We see a relatively large increase in the amount of cardboard, paper, 3-D containers, bottles and cans, and pretty much all of the typical holiday refuse you'd expect," Ryan told New Times. "Overall, you're looking at 200 to 400 tons more material per month, and we feel the impact of that."



Packed into a lot roughly the size of a city block, Brad Goodrow’s waste collection and processing facility is a bastion of recycling. The operation has three companies under one roof—Midstate Solid Waste and Recycling, North County Compost, and North County Recycling—all specializing in different aspects, including waste collection, consumer recyclables, the recycling of demolition and construction materials, green waste, and compost. Commingled recyclables are run through a disassembly line, where workers sort the materials before they are compressed, bailed, and shipped off to all over the world. Goodrow told New Timesthat they see about a 20 to 25 percent increase in materials after the holidays. He also said that during tough times like the recent recession, he’ll see a significant drop in the amount of bottles and cans received—at times up to a 70 reduction—which also means significant decline in revenue for the facility. Goodrow recently launched a composting facility in Creston, which is the only facility in the county that can accept food waste for composting. Christmas trees and most of the other green waste collected by the company will be ground with a huge electric grinder and trucked out to the compost facility.
This gallery is empty.

Categories & Keywords
Category:Objects
Subcategory:Close-ups
Subcategory Detail:
Keywords:compost, trash