![\"Laura](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumbnail_IMG_4519-1024x768.jpg\")
Laura Luxemburg, CEO of the nonprofit she started, Ssubi Foundation, loads printers from the county of San Diego into her van on Sept. 10, 2025. \/ MacKenzie Elmer<\/p>\nThousands of medical gowns and face masks leftover from the County of San Diego\u2019s Covid-19 response could be in the hands of medical students helping Tijuana communities. But instead, much of it may be sitting in a landfill.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The county confirmed it spent $5.2 million since 2020 storing tons of untouched masks, gowns and hand sanitizing stations in a private warehouse. It had been maintaining a supply of PPE as a strategic stockpile should another global health disaster hit, according to spokesperson Tim McClain. But only months before much of it expired did the county act to try and rehome it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
All of that stored PPE expired mid-August which means no U.S. hospital or clinic can use it. One woman says she could have.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Laura Luxemburg runs a foundation called Ssubi which specializes in transporting material like these to other countries, so it doesn\u2019t go to waste. Luxemburg said the county contacted her asking if she could find a way to rehome all of that untouched PPE.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Luxemburg said she would if the county could help pay for the expense of transporting it. She jumped into action, meeting with officials in southern Baja California and arranged for permits and trucks to ship the PPE to medical schools for students\u2019 use across the U.S.-Mexico border.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Luxemburg provided Voice of San Diego a copy of a draft $143,366 contract she said she won through public bid in May. Then she learned the county started clearing some of the material she was slated to move to Mexico. She emailed the county on July 9 that she\u2019d still accept a reduced amount of mainly disposable hospital gowns and revised her costs down to $97,470.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, she says, the county ghosted her.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Luxemburg said she found out on July 16 the county decided to go with another vendor. Records show the county signed a $90,050 contract on July 22 with Junkluggers of San Diego, a franchise hauling company. That company has a standing five-year, $2.5 million contract to haul and dispose of things for the county on an on-call basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Laura Luxemburg, CEO of the nonprofit she started, Ssubi Foundation, loads printers from the county of San Diego into her van on Sept. 10, 2025. \/ MacKenzie Elmer<\/p>\n
Luxemburg says she doubts a private hauler like Junkluggers knows how to find places to take so much expired medical equipment or repurposed PPE within just a few weeks of its expiration date. That\u2019s what her foundation specializes in, and that\u2019s why the county contacted her, she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now what amounts to almost 43 shipping containers worth of material is probably going to a landfill, Luxemburg fears.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes 450 years for one of those gowns to break down (in a landfill),\u201d Luxemburg said. \u201cThe county is supposed to be zero waste.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n