Esteves has campaigned against the Newby Island landfill, since at least 2014, calling for its closure. This is a polar opposite of what the landfill is planning, which is expansion of its capacity which would extend its closure date to 2041 instead of 2025 as is presently estimated. The following year, after a review of potential firms by the City Manager, a council member, and Esteves, Milipitas hired the firm Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP to litigate on the city's behalf regarding the odor issues caused by the landfill. By 2016, the firm had received up to two hundred five thousand dollars for their efforts, and Milpitas stopped sending its trash to the landfill, instead contracting with Guadalupe Landfill in San Jose. In 2015, in response to developers of property around the planned Milpitas station for BART suing the city of Milpitas demanding a reduction of development impact fees, Esteves opposed allowing one developer to pay less impact fees than another developer, as it would create a bad precedent. That same year, he went on to approve an ordinance making 25 October Larry Itliong Day in Milpitas.