The Santa Barbara County Department of Public Works announced on Friday that the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has awarded it the “gold excellence” award for its waste management program, which promotes “positive social, environmental and economically sound management principles” and which serves Buellton, Goleta, Santa Barbara, Solvang, and unincorporated areas of the county. The Resource Recover & Waste Management Division has had previously been honored with SWANA’s silver excellence award in 2001 for excellence in landfill management. “In 1995, our diversion rate was only 30 percent and today Santa Barbara County is at 69 percent, making us one of the leaders for waste management recycling in California,” said county 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal in a press statement. The division received the award on July 7.
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