Residential waste containers along a street in Los Angeles County. Photo by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, in 2020, county residents and businesses disposed of a grand total 31.1 million tons of solid waste, averaging 99,832 tons per day. Approximately 65 percent of that, however, is reused, recycled or diverted from landfills. Only about 10.5 million tons of solid waste actually ended up in landfills or transformation facilities inside and outside the county. About 14 percent of Los Angeles County solid waste destined for landfills (about 4.5 million tons) went to landfills outside of the county. About 78 percent of solid waste sent to landfills outside the county ended up at the El Sobrante Landfill in Riverside County, the Frank R. Bowerman Sanitary and Olinda Alpha Sanitary Landfills in Orange County, and the Simi Valley Landfill in Ventura County. In addition, in 2020, Los Angeles County received 178,374 tons of solid waste from outside the county.
-- Source: L.A. County DPW Solid Waste Information Management System
Also see: Solid Waste Disposal by City and Community in Los Angeles County
| Landfill | 2020 Disposal Quantity (Tons) | Remaining Capacity (Tons)* | Remaining Capacity (Years)* | Location | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antelope Valley Recycling & Disposal Facility | 759,136 | 10,178,644 | 13 | 1200 W City Ranch Rd, Palmdale 93551 | Privately Operated: Waste Management Inc. |
| Azusa Land Reclamation† | 280,234 | 65,427,521 | 25 | 1211 W Gladstone St, Azusa 91702 | Privately Operated: Azusa Land Reclamation Inc. |
| Burbank Landfill #3 | 33,031 | 2,370,357 | 110 | 1600 Lockheed View Dr, Burbank 91504 | City of Burbank |
| Calabasas Landfill | 274,996 | 4,028,220 | 14 | 5300 Lost Hills Road, Agoura 91301 | LA County Sanitation Districts |
| Chiquita Canyon Landfill | 1,816,249 | 54,420,179 | 27 | 29201 Henry Mayo Dr, Castaic 91384 | Privately Operated: Waste Connections Inc. |
| Landfill | 2020 Disposal Quantity (Tons) | Remaining Capacity (Tons)* | Remaining Capacity (Years)* | Location | Operator |
| Lancaster Landfill & Recycling Center | 123,765 | 9,873,404 | 81 | 600 East Avenue F, Lancaster 93535 | Privately Operated: Waste Management Inc. |
| Pebbly Beach | 3,599 | 32,092 | 6 | 1 Dump Rd, Avalon 90704 | Privately Operated: Seagull Sanitation Systems |
| San Clemente Landfill | 373 | 19,469 | 20 | San Clemente Island, 92674 | U.S. Navy |
| Savage Canyon Landfill | 87,308 | 4,261,790 | 35 | 13919 Penn St, Whittier, 90602 | City of Whittier |
| Scholl Canyon Landfill | 453,310 | 3,408,185 | 8 | 7721 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles 90041 | LA County Sanitation Districts |
| Landfill | 2020 Disposal Quantity (Tons) | Remaining Capacity (Tons)* | Remaining Capacity (Years)* | Location | Operator |
| Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (SERRF) | 337,989 | --- | --- | 120 Henry Ford Ave, Long Beach 90802 | City of Long Beach |
| Sunshine Canyon Landfill | 2,467,099 | 54,079,158 | 17 | 14747 San Fernando Rd, Sylmar 91344 | Privately Operated: Republic Services Inc. |
* Based 2019 average daily disposal or maximum permitted capacity as of Dec. 31, 2019.
† The Azusa Land Reclamation facility is an inert waste facility. It is the only inert waste landfill in Los Angeles County with a full solid waste facility permit.
‡ The Commerce Refuse-to-Energy Facility produces power seven days a week, 24 hours per day. An average of 100 trucks per day deliver loads Monday through Friday during normal working hours. The Facility burns an average of 360 tons of trash per day and generates a net ten megawatts of electricity for sale to the Southern California Edison Company. This is enough electricity for 20,000 Southern California homes.
Source: County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works
The Commerce Refuse-to-Energy Facility, once located in the City of Commerce, was closed by the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts in 2018. The facility processed about 350 tons of waste per day, converting it into energy. The facility had faced opposition by local advocacy groups complaining of its environmental impact on the surrounding community. The facility was closed for being unable to generate sufficient revenue.
Sunshine Canyon Landfill takes in, by far, the most amount of waste of any of the landfills in Los Angeles County. In 2019, it took in 2.1 million tons of solid waster (6,919 tons per day) or 39 percent of all solid waste delivered to Los Angeles County landfills.
Closed Los Angeles County Landfills are Puente Hills, Mission Canyon, Palos Verdes and Spadra. Privately-owned Bradley West Landfill is also closed.
In 2013, Puente Hills Landfill, the largest landfill in the United States, closed to accepting any new waste. The landfill rose 500 feet high and covered 700 acres. In 2005, it accepted four million tons of waste.
The Commerce Refuse-to-Energy Facility and the Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (SERRF) in Long Beach are both owned by separate authorities and created by Joint Powers Agreements. Sanitation District No. 2 jointly oversees the Commerce facility with the City of Commerce and the SERRF with the City of Long Beach. The SERRF is operated by a private contractor.
The largest gas-to-energy facility is located at the now-closed Puente Hills Landfill. The facility produces more than 40 megawatts of power each day, which would meet the energy requirements of approximately 100,000 homes. Edison International buys most of the facility’s energy output.
By 1947, there were more than 300,000 backyard trash incinerators throughout Los Angeles County - the primary means of waste disposal for many homes. These had come to be seen, however, as significant contributors to the increasing serious problem of air pollution in the region. Efforts to ban backyard incinerators, however, were met with fierce opposition by homeowners. Incinerator owners believed that oil refineries were the true polluters and little had been done to curtail these. Cities nevertheless began establishing residential trash collection operations and, by 1958, backyard incinerators were completely banned.
In 1961, Sam Yorty ran for mayor of Los Angeles with the promise to end the inconvenience of separating refuse. After his election, a Los Angeles city ordinance was passed that eliminated the requirement to sort recyclables.
During the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, in just 22 days, event participants, including athletes, trainers, coaches and spectators, produced 6.5 million pounds of trash - more than six pounds per person per day.
