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Why Conversion Technologies?

Each day, Southern Californians produce thousands of tons of trash. While some of this waste is recycled and made into new products, the majority still goes to local landfills that are rapidly filling up or closing down.

The changing realities of waste management create formidable challenges for the region. In the coming years, many of our region’s largest landfills will close while we will still be producing a staggering amount of excess waste.

Conversion technologies (CTs) present a real opportunity to address our solid waste problems head-on and bring Southern California significantly closer to a zero-waste future.

The County of Los Angeles is committed to evaluating and promoting the development of conversion technologies to address the region’s solid waste challenges. Conversion technologies include a variety of thermal, chemical, and biological processes that break down solid waste into usable resources such as ethanol, biodiesel, and other green fuels. Europe and Asia have successfully used CTs for over a decade and have achieved far greater diversion from landfills than in the United States.

Now is the time for California to embrace these proven technologies to alleviate the impact we have on the environment.