GONZALES, Calif- The Johnson Canyon Landfill in Gonzales has a lot of trash in it. But for Jose Gamboa, Assistant General Manager for the Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority, he sees this as wasted energy.
"Last year alone we buried 173,000 tons of garbage," says Gamboa. "That equates to about 313,000 barrels of crude oil."
In other words, that's six million gallons of gasoline and a whole lot of money.
"In today's value, it's about $23 million worth of gasoline," says Gamboa.
And plastic is one of the biggest factors. Plastic is made from petroleum and is one of the most common items you'd find at the landfill. Gamboa says it's wasted energy.
Consider this-- recycling steel and tin cans saves 74% of the energy used to make them. And each ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 4000 kilowatts of energy and 7000 gallons of water!
You know recycling helps the planet. Gamboa said you're also helping reduce our dependency on foreign oil.
"We're a society that is depending on landfills to deposit it as waste, but we are in need to move in a new direction and that is to turn waste into resources," says Gamboa. "And that's the mission of our agency."
Submitted by: Katelyn Sykes, Your Central Coast News
