Western Regional Sanitary Landfill

This is the Western Regional Sanitary Landfill in Lincoln, the big place where household and larger loads end up buried. Locals, landscapers and contractors bring everything they can’t recycle or compost here, and it feels like a proper, working landfill rather than a tidy transfer station. The site sits off Athens Avenue and has that long, open, layered look - hills of compacted cover and active tipping areas.

Drive up to an entrance booth and you’ll likely be routed onto a scale - landfills charge by weight, so expect to stop both coming in and going out. There’s usually a staging area or lanes to pull into before being directed to the active cell where trucks tip; bigger roll-offs and dump trucks get sent to the far side. The place is large and noisy with heavy equipment moving material around and compacting it; watch for traffic flow and follow the attendant’s directions. Recycling or organics drop-offs tend to be separated at many California sites, so pay attention to signs or lanes for different material types.