Arcadia Boy Marks Earth Day Month With Landfill Tour

First Avenue Middle School student Aaron Budiman has first-hand knowledge of what happens to trash once it is collected from a home or business.
Aaron helped kick off a month-long celebration of Earth Day on Tuesday with a tour of the Waste Management El Sobrante Landfill in Riverside County.
There, he learned about what happens to Arcadia residents’ waste and the facility’s use of green technology. The City of Arcadia contracts Waste Management to provide residential, commercial, construction and recycling services
“I’ve always been interested in garbage trucks and what happens to our trash once it leaves our homes,” Aaron said, adding that he especially liked learning about how the landfill turns waste into electricity.
The El Sobrante Landfill powers 6,000 homes through its landfill gas-to-energy facility and was the first in the industry to invest in a D7E hybrid dozer in Southern California. The hybrid dozer reduces greenhouse gas emissions and emits 99 percent fewer smog-inducing substances.
Since 2000, Waste Management’s El Sobrante Landfill and Wildlife Preserve has been providing outdoor education programs that give students, scouts and the community at large hands-on experiences about waste, recycling and environmental stewardship.