As trucks carried in trash, people were carrying out treasures at the Yolo County Landfill. The Big Blue Recycling Barn Thrift Store opened at the landfill in an effort to recycle or reuse old and discarded goods that might have otherwise been buried.
There were about 25 people who braved the early morning heat to see what they could find among an assortment of vinyl record albums, bicycles, furnishing, yard equipment and hundreds of other items. Located on the outskirts of the landfill at 44090 CR-28H, the thrift store was created to reduce the county’s carbon footprint and meet it “strategic plan objectives focused on waste reduction,” Yolo County Supervisor Jim Provenza said earlier.
Marissa Juhler, Yolo County waste reduction manager, who handles the nitty gritty work of putting discarded objects back into the hands of others, supported Provenza’s statements. “We’ve been on this road for eight years,” Juhler explained during a brief ribbon cutting ceremony. “We had a vision to re-purpose materials that otherwise would have been destined for disposal.”
Typically, trash trucks bringing waste to the landfill will dump discarded food, clothing and other material in a variety of locations which are then mounded over with dirt. The Yolo County Central Landfill already provides an opportunity for residents and businesses to recycle or dispose of waste, whether it is hazardous waste, electronic waste, household garbage or construction materials. Over the years, the landfill has also made arrangements to tap the methane gas seeping from deep underground so it can be used for power generation. It has also recycled or sold the parts of discarded electronic equipment. And where it could, biomass has been redirected as well.
And in recent years, the landfill has been basically giving away half-empty cans of paint, motor oil and a few other select items, but nothing to the degree now taking place in what is effectively a retail business where the items being sold have to actually work. “This is untraditional,” Juhler explained. “Folks going to a thrift store are intending for those items to be reused. When they come here they’re intending for them to be buried. So we have a very captive audience.
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