INC NEWS - state report on Landfills

[pat carstensen]

This is from ConNet's weekly summary of state legislative / regulatory 
stuff.  One thing to note is the HUGE amount of $$ we could be getting if we 
recycled more.  Maybe we could have a contest among neighborhoods on 
participation rates in recylcing (-:

Regards, pat

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Solid waste annual report.  Paul Crissman, Division of Waste Management 
Director, presented the annual solid waste report to the committee. He had 
10 main points. (Crissman reflected that if he’d been a preacher he’d have 
done a sorry job because he gave a 10 point sermon instead of a 3 point 
sermon.)

          o
            Increasing waste: the amount of waste we generate is increasing 
faster than population growth.
          o
            New types of facilities: almost 40% of waste goes through 
transfer stations and that is increasing.
          o
            Staffing reductions: the Division has lost 20% of its staff at 
the same time waste is increasing.
          o
            Waste travels: waste flow has changed dramatically, with 
regional landfills rather than local county landfills now taking over half 
of the waste. 10% of our waste leaves the state.
          o
            Landfill ownership: no current permit holders were the original 
permit applicants.
          o
            Capacity is not evenly distributed: To say the state has 22 
years of capacity left is misleading because capacity in landfills varies 
widely across the state.
          o
            Lack of public acceptance: it is very difficult to site a new 
landfill; Greensboro and Orange County plan to transfer waste rather than 
site a new landfill.
          o
            New proposed landfills: 4 new proposed landfills are unique in 
that they are primarily for out of state waste and would change NC to a net 
importer of waste.
          o
            In areas not previously anticipated: proposed landfills are in 
areas of the state not anticipated for growth in this industry.
          o
            Legacy of old landfills: there is contamination in virtually all 
of the old orphan landfills.

Crissman then went on to briefly summarize the Department’s main 
recommendations that are contained in S1492, Solid Waste Management Act.  
Sen. Forrester (Gaston-R) had a series of quesitons: do landfills currently 
have double liners? (S1492 would require double-liners).  Answer: only the 
landfill in New Hanover County. Forrester: are any landfills leaking? 
Crissman: all orphan landfills have contamination. Forrester: when ownership 
of a landfill is transferred does the company that originally built it have 
any liability? Crissman: we’re not sure the answers are clear and that is 
one of the things that troubles us. Forrester: how do they take care of 
waste in countries with less space than we have, like Europe? Crissman: they 
do incinerate, they have landfills, and they have stronger recycling 
programs and behavior differences with packaging and consumption.

Sen. Swindell (Nash-D) asked if they had proposed a sunset on the $2.00 
tipping surcharge, since the amount of waste, and thus the revenue, is 
projected to increase.  Crissman responded that a sunset was not proposed 
and that, in fact, local governments are concerned about not having enough 
funds to start out with to address liability from residential encroachment 
on old landfills.  Rep. Gibson (Anson-D) asked Crissman to summarize the 
argument between the private and public sectors. Crissman acknowledged that 
the public sector is concerned about S1492 putting them out of the landfill 
business, but assured the committee that is not DENR’s intention and that 
they strongly encourage local government facilities. He noted that 
Greensboro and Orange County are not getting out of the landfill business on 
account of S1492 but because of lack of public acceptance for new landfills.

Staff counsel George Givens summed up the three big areas of disagreement on 
S1492, which is currently in a stakeholder negotiation: franchise process, 
technical standards for landfill siting, and the tipping surcharge. He 
clarified that the tipping fee is what the hauler pays per ton at the 
landfill and it encompasses the cost of disposal, the cost to meet technical 
standards, and a profit for the operator. The tipping surcharge is a tax on 
top of that that would be used to fund cleanup of orphan landfills.  He 
noted that one factor that drives waste across state lines is the cost of 
disposal, and that a higher tipping fee can be a disincentive for the 
transportation of waste.

Finally, Scott Mouw with the state recycling program gave a succinct 
presentation on recycling markets in North Carolina.  There has been a 60% 
growth in recycling sector jobs in NC in the last decade, and there are 540 
companies in NC that recycle.  He made the point that recyclables that are 
being thrown away are not waste, but rather commodities, and that NC 
disposes of over 3 million tons of traditional easily recyclable materials 
such as bottles, aluminum cans and paper, electronics and wood pallets.  The 
value of just the bottles, aluminum and paper disposed of is over $100 
million. We could recycle over half of the waste stream in NC –“there is 
still a lot left for us to grab.”

Sen. Swindell (Nash-D) asked what we should be doing to help the glass 
recycler in his district. Mouw replied that successful implementation in 
2008 of the law passed last year that requires bars to recycle bottles will 
help.  Sen. Albertson (Duplin-D) asked what percentage of waste we are 
recycling now. Mouw replied that it is difficult to tell, but probably 25 % 
to 30%.  Albertson: I don’t understand why we’re not doing better. Mouw: we 
don’t have right combination of incentives, enforcement and mandates; for 
instance a tax incentive to close the gap between the cost of disposal and 
recycling of food waste.

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