Waste disposal is increasingly becoming a business, with garbage as a commodity. Often communities can dispose of their garbage at the lowest cost by shipping it long distances to large, regional waste disposal sites. To get better deals, producers of garbage are even banding together, to offer landfills a long-term predictable stream of waste. Recent developments in Wake and Surry counties highlight this trend.
Cities and counties around the country are importing and exporting trash. In 2000, 49 states exported municipal solid waste and 45 states imported it. Between 1990 and 2000, interstate shipments of waste increased by 30 percent. After adjusting for inflation, disposal costs actual fell over the 10-year period.
A major reason for all this movement of solid waste is economics: There are economies of scale in operating a landfill. A larger facility can, for example, spread its permitting costs over many more users and use its equipment more efficiently.
A 1997 Environmental Protection Agency study highlights the advantages of size. The costs of operating a 100-ton-per-day landfill were three times higher on a per- ton basis than that of operating a 1,000-ton- per-day landfill. A 1,500-ton-per-day landfill was even more efficient, with costs on a per-ton basis one-fourth of that of the 100-ton-per-day landfill.
For scale, Cary, with a population of just over 100,000, generates about 27,000 tons of garbage a year.
It is difficult, however, for individual localities to generate enough trash to justify building and operating a large-scale, economically efficient landfill. Coming up with the needed capital can also be difficult.
These limits have helped spur the move toward large regional landfills operated by private firms. Today the private sector employs about 75 percent of the people in the solid-waste industry.
Garbage disposal remains very much a local responsibility. In Wake County, the county itself is responsible only for the waste generated in unincorporated areas. The county’s 12 municipalities are responsible for the waste generated within their own borders.
“On our own, we really don’t pick up much garbage,” Wake County Manager David Cooke said to The News & Observer of Raleigh. “It makes it harder for us to bargain a new contract. If we have Raleigh’s garbage and Cary’s garbage and all the other towns, that’s a lot of garbage. We can take that into the marketplace and get lower prices.”
Much of the residential waste generated throughout the county currently goes to the North Wake landfill. That facility should be full in 2007, forcing users to find an alternative waste disposal site. Two approaches are being considered as a replacement for North Wake: opening a new landfill or shipping waste out of the county.
To address the issue most efficiently, Wake County and its municipalities are exploring combining their garbage contracts into one. By doing so and entering into a long-term agreement, the governments hope to reduce costs enough so that they won’t have to open the new landfill. On an even larger level, Triangle J Council of Governments has started examining the feasibility of a regional garbage compact that might reach all the way from the Triangle area into Virginia.
One place Wake County’s garbage most certainly will not be going to is Surry County. The Surry County Commission decided Oct 2. to turn down a proposal to lease out its landfill to a private company. The company would have turned the site into a regional facility that disposed of waste from up to 200 miles away.
Under the proposal by Waste Industries, the company would have operated the fill for 30 years under an exclusive franchise agreement. Separate operating agreements would be renewable every 10 years. Waste Industries would also manage garbage collection and recycling within Surry County.
To reduce traffic through Elkin to the landfill, the company was looking at the possibility of constructing a special exit off Interstate 74 leading straight to the dump.
Waste Industries already operates a regional landfill in Sampson County. Among those speaking in support of the proposal was Sampson County Commissioner Kermit Williamson, who stated local residences in his county were pleased with the company.
While Surry County turned down Waste Industries’ proposal, the strong incentives offered by the company demonstrate the financial resources of the industry. In time, it and other landfill operators will find the sites they need.
Michael Lowrey is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.