No matter the type of natural disaster, environmental management teams are prepared to contain, confine, identify and profile the waste left behind. There's a growing push to divert as much waste as possible from landfills, according to Republic Services Vice President of Emergency Response Bobby Breed. "While a lot of the debris left behind from a natural disaster includes municipal solid waste, there's often also hazardous waste and special waste," Breed says. "Municipal solid waste is regular trash, whereas hazardous waste involves acid waste, pesticides, flammables and gasoline. Special waste may not be hazardous, but may be naturally occurring, radioactive materials that aren't considered hazardous but require special removal." Breed has been fighting California wildfires for 30-plus years, including the 2021 Dixie Fire, the state's largest in history. Quantifying the magnitude of the disaster is critical. Based on the findings in each waste category, teams begin profiling and analyzing samples. "Every effort is made to recycle plastics, metals broken pallets, pipes and anything else that we can divert from a landfill," says Breed.
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