Key Facts and Figures

TONS RECYCLED: Redwood Landfill & Recycling Center recycles or reuses almost 50 percent of the material brought to the site, or more than 1,000 tons per day. That's more than 350,000 tons a year, or eight times the weight of the Titanic.

LEADING RECYCLER: Redwood is responsible for one third of the recycling that occurs in Marin County.

Greenhouse gas reduction: Redwood captures and safely flares about 90 percent of the gas created by the decomposition of the landfilled waste, significantly reducing the landfill's greenhouse gas emissions. Redwood is in full compliance with California's strict emissions standards and is working to develop new technologies to improve capture efficiencies. Part of the Mitigated Alternative includes a landfill gas-to-energy project that would provide renewable electricity for large businesses or as many as 4,000 to 5,000 homes. This power is called Green Energy by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It is a unique and beneficial way to use this renewable resource captured from within the landfill.

Traffic Safety: As traffic in the North Bay worsened, the trucks and cars crossing Highway 101 to access Redwood became a greater traffic hazard. To address this issue, Redwood designed and paid for a $10 million bridge over the highway to improved traffic safety. The new bridge opened in 2006. Redwood plans to transfer ownership of the bridge to the state at no cost if it is incorporated into Caltrans' future improvement plans of the highway. The bridge design also can accommodate potential future widening of the highway.

Protection of water quality: Redwood's leachate collection and removal system includes an extensive network of trenches, pipes, and pumps that gather leachate and convey it to an engineered impoundment on site. In more than four decades of independent water quality monitoring at Redwood there has never been evidence of a leachate leak.

What comes in: We accept a wide variety of materials, from household waste to recyclable materials such as building debris and home appliances. We inspect all public loads that are brought to our facility and enforce strict waste acceptance requirements. We accept no hazardous waste.

Government regulation: We are actively regulated by many government entities, including the California Integrated Waste Management Board , the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the County of Marin Local Enforcement Agency.

Climate Action Registry: Redwood's parent company, Waste Management, was a founding member of the Chicago Climate Exchange and the first waste company to join the California Climate Action Registry. Waste Management was the first solid waste and recycling company in the nation to voluntarily report and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions through the Chicago Climate Exchange.