Joe E. Heimlich
Garbage is not generally a topic people enjoy discussing. However, when the topic turns to landfills, discussion explodes into debates and highly charged emotional situations. Few issues in contemporary society create as much of a groundswell from grass roots as does the possibility of a landfill siting in the community or an area. Yet. given current technology and disposal patterns, landfills are and will remain a necessary and important component of waste management. This is a reality that we need to address in light of the landfill "squeeze" that the United States is experiencing.
In Ohio, nearly half the counties do not have principal, public landfills. This situation does not look better for the future as new landfill sitings are few and normally fraught with difficulty.
This fact sheet will explore the current status of landfills as a component of an integrated solid waste management system.
Sanitary landfills are well-engineered, well controlled land disposal sites for solid, nonhazardous waste in which delivered wastes are spread and compacted in layers a few feet thick At least once a day the wastes are covered with a layer of earth and then compacted again. This is not the image most people have of landfills, however. Most people remember the many open dump sites that used to be the norm for disposal. These were often nothing more than valleys or quarries or mines whose owners decided to allow people to dump trash. Along with solid wastes, into these open dumps went all kinds of household and commercial hazardous wastes and industrial materials.
The open dump was a hazard because of its potential for producing leachate, becoming a rodent and insect breeding ground, and its general health dangers. Even though the open dump is now illegal and those landfills that do not comply to sanitary standards are being closed, the image many people have of waste management is the image of the open dump. This is one misperception of waste management as it relates to landfills that encourages a groundswell of opposition whenever a landfill is to be sited.
Today's technically engineered, sanitary landfills are a distant relative of the open dumps of the past. Modem sanitary landfills are designed to protect the environment by containing and isolating waste. Current landfills require extensive planning, engineering, monitoring and supervision both by law and public demand.
The sites for landfills are carefully selected based on studies done by engineers and hydrogeologists. Sites are selected both for their hydro-physical and their geographic characteristics. Some of the features that the engineers examine are depth of natural clay liner, depth of bedrock, level of groundwater, aquifer system if any, and watershed.
Landfills in Ohio are required to have a heavy plastic liner or impermeable "membrane." The liner covers the natural clay or imported clay liner of a site which is ideally located over a bed rock. The goal of contemporary sanitary landfills is to safely contain and isolate waste.
"Not In My Back Yard" is often the watch cry for citizens in an area where a landfill is reportedly to be sited. Siting a landfill is a highly emotional issue, and people often look for alternatives to landfills. Though the goal of an integrated solid waste management system is the reduced dependency on landfills, there is and will be a need for landfills in the United States. In Ohio, nearly 70 percent of all waste is landfilled. Nationwide, the figure is over 80 percent of all waste. Even with the potential of recycling, composting, and incineration, landfills will be necessary for ultimate disposal. Current best technology for recycling may suggest that 20 percent of waste be diverted to recycling. Best guesstimates for compostable materials (yard wastes) are between 18 and 22 percent in urban areas, and incineration is, at best, a reducer of volume by 75 to 85 percent. Therefore, there will be a need for disposal of at least 25 percent volume of current waste plus ash residues. The bottom line is that a landfill is necessary and must go somewhere. NIMBY is a syndrome that is contagious and often irrefutable.
Leachate is the liquid that results from rain, snow, dew, and natural moisture percolating through waste. The liquids migrating through the waste dissolve salts, pick up organic constituents and leach heavy metals. The organic strength of landfill leachate can be greater than 20 to 100 times the strength of raw sewage, making this "landfill liquor" a potentially potent polluter of soil and groundwater. This is why the issue of leachate is important in discussions on landfills. In open dumps, the material that leached would be absorbed into the ground and potentially move into groundwater, surface water, or aquifer systems. In new landfills and future landfills, it is required that collection systems be designed into the landfill to pump and collect the leachate for treatment.
The major intent in requiring all landfills to include non-permeable liners is to prohibit any leaching into the ground or groundwater system. Given this current "best" technology, leachate is less a concern and more an issue to be addressed and technologically engineered into a landfill.
One of the mayor concerns of homeowners is that land values will decrease if a landfill is sited. In actuality, land values do decrease but only during that time when a landfill is under discussion. Current requirements on landfill setbacks and siting procedures create an enclosed environment of landfill wherein the impact on surrounding structures is minimal. Indeed, some studies suggest that development of a well-constructed landfill can enhance property values more than depress them. One reason, as some studies have shown, is that when closed, a landfill is not suitable for development other than green space. The recreational potential of the landfill is attractive to development in growing metropolitan and suburban regions. Because of the difficulty in siting landfills, owners of privately owned landfills are often willing to negotiate with communities on maintenance of infrastructure and property values to ensure peaceful relationships. These "good neighbor" or "host community benefit sharing" programs are case by case approaches to communities working with developers on landfill siting for their mutual benefit.
As wastes deteriorate, they often produce gas (methane). New landfills are required to have equipment to collect and pump the methane gas. Some older landfills have also installed the equipment. This gas can be burned at the surface or be refined and used as a commercial fuel: in one case study, nearly 50,000 homes are provided electricity annually by the methane produced at one landfill. It takes approximately two years after closing a cell of the landfill for methane to begin forming. The "landfill smell" that many people recognize from older dump sites and landfills without the more advanced technology is the result of landfill gases. Explosions and fires at old dumps and landfills are often the result of methane build-up in a building on or adjacent to the landfill property.
Any discussion of landfills would not be complete without identifying several related issues Each of these other issues is worthy of significant attention and consideration in landfill decisions but for purposes of this fact sheet, they will only be introduced.
In any solid waste management system, up to 85 percent (the national average is closer to 80 percent) of costs related to waste management are in collection and hauling. It is very expensive to provide trucks that go from house to house or from building to building. Collection costs are also labor intensive. Whether the collection system is public or private, these high costs for collection are paid. In some situations, collection systems can be publicly funded or subsidized. In others, households or businesses pay monthly fees for collection and sometimes pay surcharges for more waste than is permitted on their route.
A significant cost is for hauling. In one national study, it was found that it cost at least 50 cents per mile per ton of garbage to haul collected wastes. In municipalities and counties without landfills, waste must be hauled further away. Given the costs per ton for hauling wastes, not only the higher tipping fee that would be found in an out-of-district (currently multi-county waste district) landfill, but the added cost for additional mileage on hauling make a landfill nearby more attractive.
Transfer stations may be an important component of an integrated solid waste management system. In a transfer station, wastes are brought to a regional center where they are processed. This processing is usually shredding or compaction, but in some examples, includes composting or recycling facilities at the transfer site. After the waste is processed, the waste that needs to be landfilled is transferred to a larger bed truck (which is less expensive on over-the- road travel than is the compactor vehicle) for delivery to a landfill. Transfer stations are waste management facilities and as such are difficult to site but often pay off greatly in reduced hauling costs.
There are many arguments for and against, who should own and manage a landfill: public or private entities. Every situation is somewhat unique, and therefore there is no prescription as to what is better, public or private ownership, and what is better management, public or private. The pros for public ownership and management focus around control and integration factors The pros for private ownership and management center on flexibility, efficiency and potential returns to citizens. In a discussion of landfills, it is good to explore positive and negative issues regarding ownership and management of all types.
Given current technology and waste generation, landfills are and will remain a necessary component of an integrated solid waste management system. Landfills are ultimate disposal. Once the waste is put In the fill, it remains there indefinitely. Although mining is considered a possibility for future recovery of recyclable or reclaimable materials, current technology still identifies the landfill as an ultimate disposal site. Given that the landfill is a necessary component of an integrated solid waste management system, the need for landfills will not abate, but given reduction, reuse, recycling, composting, and incineration alternatives, the need will lessen.
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Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Adm. and Director, OSU Extension.
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