The Department is responsible for the efficient and effective landfilling of non-hazardous county waste. In this effort the Department operates five landfills, has a contract agreement for waste disposal with an additional private landfill, and administers several transfer station leases. Every effort is made to recycle and reuse appropriate items with scrupulous attention to public health and safety. 

In the past, trash was disposed of in a “dump”, and either burned or buried in a hole. Stringent regulations were enacted that require governments to design, operate, monitor, and close sanitary landfills. After a landfill closes, the site is capped and continues to be monitored for landfill gas and groundwater for a minimum of 30 years. The Department ensures that Riverside County has a minimum of 15 years of capacity, at any time, for future landfill disposal. The Department is organized so that nearly all functions of designing, permitting, operating, maintaining, and supporting the landfill system are performed by in-house staff.