Californians generally bury 46 mill...

Californians generally bury 46 million tons of waste each year -- 60 percent of that from business and industry -- and the state is running gone out of landfill space.

unless through an innovative state program, businesses in California have diverted 232000 tons of refuse from landfills, saving nearly $15 million in the proces The program, the California Materials Exchange (Calmax), Sacramento, is a state-funded, business-to-business matchmaking effort aiming to maintain resources and landfill space.

Calmax was created in 1991 in rejoinder to Assembly Bill 939, which forced local jurisdictions to contract landfilled waste by 25 percent at 1995 and by 50 percent through the year 2000.

The matchmaking program, undivided of the few designated solely for nonhazardous materials, helps businesses give or betray discarded materials at low splendor to other companies, schools and governmental and nonprofit agencies.

Through the program, centurys of Californians have discovered treasures among