Unfortunately, the San Jose planning commission on Dec 7th voted to approve the Newby Island Landfill expansion. The Garbage dump will be piled up to an unprecedented 245 feet and will remain open until 2041. They erroneously cited they need more Landfill capacity when they have plenty in the county. They also stated that they didn’t want to ship their Garbage to other communities and needed the expansion, but apparently it is okay to ship San Jose’s garbage to Milpitas and Monterey. They also argued that the extra height won’t contribute to more odor, use your common sense about that point, more garbage more odor.

City of San Jose has been hypocritical in its public policies.

On one hand, it issued Green Vision goal to divert 100% of waste out of landfills by 2022, and had used that goal to build over 12 new recycling and composting facilities. San Jose Mayor further endorsed Measure AA to raise $500 million to restore the bay from landfill and toxic pollution.

Newby Island’s Area Manager Mike Caprio told the planning commission that its existing permit has capacity through 2023-2025. This is not even including the 20+ years of excess landfill capacity at San Jose’s other landfills that have 0 violations.

Yet, the planning commission chose to expand Newby Island, completely disregarding 23 unresolved regulatory violations, its city municipal code and zero waste goal. No wonder City of San Jose is persistently ranked as one of the worst-run big cities in the country.

Thanks to the volunteers for all the efforts that went into last night’s San Jose Planning commission meeting on the Newby Island Landfill. Volunteers were preparing speeches, organizing for the bus ride/carpool. Special thanks to the brave folks who brave the rainy weather to speak on behalf of the community. Thanks Milpitas councilmembers Garry Barbadillo and Marsha Grilli and Milpitas Mayor Rich Tran for also showing up.