The Department is unique because we are a mix of public and private enterprises. We are a County entity charged with serving the public and protecting the environment, and we manage our business to deliver the highest level of service at competitive prices. We have a a 97 percent customer satisfaction rate with some of the lowest residential services prices in the region.

• The Department services 155,000 residential customers every week, collecting and disposing or processing 150,000 tons of trash, 75,000 tons of green waste and 45,000 tons of recyclables each year.
  
  
• The Kiefer Landfill receives over 700,000 tons of waste per year.
  
  
• As part of the mitigation agreement put in place that allowed the Kiefer Landfill to expand, the creation of the Kiefer Landfill Wetland Preserve was completed in 2007. Known as the Kiefer Bufferlands, this nearly 2000 acre preserve includes part of the Deer Creek Watershed, oak woodlands, the Sloughhouse agricultural area and acres of vernal pool habitat areas, which are home to many threatened or endangered species of flora and fauna such as the Vernal Pool Tadpole Shrimp, the Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp, the Swainson's Hawk and Orcutt Grass.
  
  
• The North Area Recovery Station has the Department's only liquefied natural gas (LNG) station. This gas in turn is then pumped into the County garbage trucks. In compliance with the California Clean Air Act, County refuse trucks have all been converted to run on liquefied natural gas as opposed to diesel.
  
  
• In 1982, the County began converting their neighborhood garbage hauling program from physical labor to automation by installing the mechanical arm that picks up the containers in 1982. This reduced work-related injuries and allowed for a wider variety of people to qualify for the job.
  
  
• All garbage and recycling trucks are outfitted with two-way radios, which allow the driver to stay both in contact with dispatch and each other to make sure that all service problems and issues can be addressed quickly.
  
  
• The County processes on average 75 tons, or 150,000 pounds of e-waste each month through County's e-waste vendor California Electronic Asset Recovery (CEAR). In 2007, The Department turned in almost 1.4 million pounds of e-waste to CEAR, which generated $309,000 in return. Most of this money generated goes back to e-waste recycling programs.