The below photos are of the garbage pit at Norcal Waste Systems, Inc. in one of their locations in San Francisco, CA. This comes from when we decide to put trash in our black bin, recycling items in our blue bin, or compostables in our green bin. The trash from the black bin gets dumped by trucks into this garbage pit, mashed down by a big machine that drives around on it, and then trucked out to a landfill facility. There is no sorting of the garbage pit. That means that all items that could have been composted or recycled in our other bins now go to landfill. All of the plastic grocery store bags in these photos that could have been brought to a local supermarket for recycling, now go to landfill with no sorting. Paints, batteries, CFL lights, phones, TV sets, and other questionable items can all be dropped off at their location rather than thrown in the trash to further contaminate landfills.

Norcal Waste Systems, Inc. handles Sunset Scavenger, Golden Gate Disposal, and SF Recycling and Disposal. They are one of the leaders in the nation in terms of going green, but still 30-40% of all items that come in from their trucks / items dropped off by consumers and businesses still go to landfill.

This is the garbage pit at their SF location. At the sides of the photo you can see where trucks drop off trash.





This is a close up photo of one section in the garbage pit. Notice how much plastic and other items that could have been recycled end up here.