Sustainable Living

Reckoning with plastics recycling

Marisa Endicott, PRESS DEMOCRAT

“They’re always coming up with some new solution that is still based on plastic waste recycling, and plastic recycling fundamentally doesn’t work,” Dell said.

At an 85,000-square-foot solid waste plant in south Santa Rosa, a tractor loader scooped up the blue bin contents from hundreds of Sonoma and Marin County curbside garbage customers. The mix of recyclables was then funneled through a maze of conveyor belts, chutes and optical sorters.

Paper traveled up along a fish ladder to be baled, while heavier materials continued down the line, where a separator diverted aluminum in one direction and a magnet pulled steel cans off the line and flung them into a cage. People posted along the way served as a “last line of defense,” as Recology Sonoma Marin‘s Senior General Manager Logan Harvey put it, making sure the discarded containers, cardboard and paper products were headed for the right place.

The whirring high-tech machinery is part of a $35 million upgrade completed two years ago at Recology Sonoma Marin’s Materials Recovery Facility. The Standish Avenue plant, the main destination for blue bin materials across Recology’s service area in the region, now takes in and processes roughly 350 tons of recycling a day — 40 to 50 tons per hour — from 13 communities in Sonoma and Marin counties.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/04/22/your-discarded-plastics-go-to-this-upgraded-santa-rosa-facility-after-that-we-tried-to-find-out/

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No, compostable bags don’t go in the green bin

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Rob Carey was surprised after garbage pickup day to see the pink notice affixed to his green bin.

The note left for the Sebastopol resident was a soft reprimand from the city’s curbside hauler, Sonoma County Resource Recovery.

Carey, who regards himself a considerate customer, had been called out for for using green compostable bags to discard his fruit and vegetable scraps.

“They said, ‘We don’t want that,’” he said, confounded. “And here I thought these bags were good.”

Carey considers himself a ‘recycler,’ so he was surprised to learn he’d been going about his green waste disposal in the wrong way.

He is likely not alone.

While single-use bags labeled as compostable are an alternative for plastic bags, they are not be disposed of in the green bins used to collect compostable waste, including food scraps and yard debris.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/01/15/can-compostable-bags-go-in-the-green-bin-heres-what-north-bay-waste-haulers-say/?utm_email=5403F4019552E5C374DF9582D9&lctg=5403F4019552E5C374DF9582D9

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3 California pest control companies settle case brought by Bay Area counties

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County is among dozens of plaintiffs to settle an environmental lawsuit brought against three pest control companies for violating state pesticide, hazardous waste and customer records privacy laws.

The case, filed in Contra Costa County Superior Court, accused Clark Pest Control of Stockton, Crane Pest Control and Orkin Services of California of unlawfully disposing of pesticides and hazardous wastes in company waste bins headed to municipal landfills that were not authorized to accept that waste. It also accused the companies of failing to shred customer records containing confidential information before disposing of them.

As part of the settlement agreement, the three companies agreed to pay a total $3.15 million, including $2 million in civil penalties. The remaining $1.1 million will cover supplemental environmental compliance projects, investigative costs and compliance measures.

The companies also agreed to comply with a series of monitoring and training requirements. Those requirements include cooperating with annual dumpster audits performed by a third-party auditor at a minimum of 10% of facilities for five years; requiring all facility employees to complete a pesticide waste and hazardous waste training program; and devoting a minimum of 2,000 hours per year to enhanced waste management oversight and compliance.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/11/24/california-pest-control-settlement/

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Plastics recycling startup Resynergi says it is moving

Jeff Quackenbush and Martin Espinoza, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Resynergi Inc., the Sonoma County startup whose decadelong effort to convert plastic waste into new material or fuel, is leaving the state.

The company plans to move from its demonstration site in Rohnert Park to an undisclosed location. The move follows three months of intensifying public backlash against plans for a first-of-its-kind processing facility at its site in the mixed-use SOMO Village and greater scrutiny from regulators.

CEO Brian Bauer said the move, announced in a Thursday morning news release, is driven by mounting regulatory hurdles here and a search for eased permitting and economic incentives elsewhere.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/09/25/resynergi-rohnert-park-plastics/

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Rohnert Park ups scrutiny of Resynergi

Jeff Quackenbush, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Resynergi Inc., a 10-year-old Rohnert Park company that has encountered strong local opposition in recent weeks to its plan to start up the latest generation of its unique system for dealing with plastic waste, was told this week it may need more county authorizations.

Sonoma County’s Environmental Health Division sent the company a letter, dated Sept. 16, saying the operation isn’t a recycling center, so it may need to get from the county a solid waste facility permit. The agency and CalRecycle, which regulates solid waste statewide, are talking about what approvals could be needed and are set to make a decision in a week or two, a division spokesperson told the Journal in an email Monday.

“Your facility will use pyrolysis to convert waste plastic into a form that can be re-used,” Director Christine Sosko wrote in the letter obtained by The Press Democrat. “Although your facility might be considered a recycling facility in vernacular language, it is not under state law.”

Resynergi is seeking to turn on its latest research version of its “advanced microwave pyrolysis” system, this one designed to sort, grind up and transform via heat in an oxygen-less slight vacuum up to 5 tons of certain plastics into pyrolysis oil to be trucked off to refiners for making more plastics or fuel. California law treats pyrolysis as “transformation” and not recycling.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/09/19/resynergi-told-to-get-county-waste-permit-as-city-investigates-use-permit/

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Why more than 1,000 goats are working for Santa Rosa this fire season

Madison Smalstig, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Santa Rosa Fire Department has brought in some unusual help this summer: more than 1,000 goats — and possibly some sheep.

The animals, hired through two contractors, began work June 8 and are expected to munch through about 130 acres of dry grass and weeds across eight city sites. The contractors — Goats R Us of Orinda and CAPRA Environmental Services of Roseville — will manage the herds as they move through the properties.

The “grazing team” will target areas that typically meet city fire maintenance standards but are difficult to clear using equipment because of rocky terrain or steep slopes.

In Upper Brush Creek Park, for example, city crews would normally cut a 30-foot fuel break around the perimeter but leave the hilly interior untouched, Santa Rosa Division Chief Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal said.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosa-goats-wildfire/

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Op-Ed: Banning plants near homes could aggravate fire risk

Max Moritz and Luca Carmignani, LOS ANGELES TIMES

One of the most striking patterns in the aftermath of many urban fires is how much unburned green vegetation remains amid the wreckage of burned neighborhoods.

In some cases, a row of shrubs may be all that separates a surviving house from one that burned just a few feet away.

As scientists who study how vegetation ignites and burns, we aren’t surprised by these images: We recognize that well-maintained plants and trees can help protect homes from windblown embers and slow the spread of fire in some cases. So we are concerned about new wildfire protection regulations being developed by California that would prohibit almost all plants and other combustible material within 5 feet of homes, an area known as “Zone 0.”

Wildfire safety guidelines have long encouraged homeowners to avoid having flammable materials next to their homes. But the state’s plan for an “ember-resistant zone,” being expedited under an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom, goes further by also prohibiting grass, shrubs and many trees in that area.

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