Landfills
Hi,
Not your typical Amiga forum conversation! However, I happen to be in the
landfill business. My family owns and operates a medium sized landfill in
northeastern Ohio.
I don't agree with everything that has been discussed, but the regulatory
comment is spot on, but that is only the tip of the regula-burg. We are
literally being crushed by government regulation. The most frustrating
thing is that while the regulations cost a tremendous amount of money to
comply with – they do little or nothing to improve the environmental safty
of the landfill. All that wasted money (millions!) could have and should
have gone into comprehensive reduce/reuse/recycle/composting systems!
But the entire debate boils down to $money$!!! The majority of people will
do what is cheapest and buring garbage is still the most economical
disposal option available. Few people are willing to pay $100.00-$200.00
per ton for a full scale recycling/composting facility when landfills can
(in this part of the country) still function in the $15.00-$40.00 per ton
range!
Contrary to popular belief – landfill operators are the MOST interested in
keeping unnecessary items out of their facilities. We are concerned about
environmental issues and think that they are important, but this is a
business and unfortunately is largely driven by cost considerations. (no
this doen't mean that we will take illegal items to make a fast buck!)
Landfill space is very expensive to develope ($250,000 on up per acre) and
it just does not make sense to waste that space on anything that does not
absolutely positively have to be buried.
What few people realize is that EVERY process including recycling and
composting generate non-reusable residues; not to mention the tremendous
amount of non-hazardous industrial wastes generated every day. This non
reusable residue will always be with us in some amount and a landfill is
the only solution for its disposal.
The challenge in future years (assuming the recycling/composting ever
reaches it's full potential) will be to concentrate on reducing the amount
on non-reusable residue in our world.
Patrick 72210,1702