[USCC] Landfill

Wed Dec 31 11:32:50 CST 2008

Myron -

Thanks for kicking off a great topic for (almost) 2009. The issue of  
"feedstock competition" is an important one. As you know, almost half  
of the states ban some form of yard trimmings from landfills. A few  
states are now considering similar bans on food scraps. As we all  
learn more about greenhouse gas and climate change, there is likely  
going to be an increase in the connection between putting organic  
materials in landfills and the methane that is created. Yes, some  
landfills have very sophisticated "landfill gas" collection systems.  
These systems can measure the amount of gas captured, but they don't  
measure the gas they don't capture. There are theoretical models  
which can both over and under estimate the amount of landfill gas  
that might be generated. As you can imagine, all sorts of variables  
contribute to this - waste composition, compaction and covering  
methods, climate, age of the landfill, and perhaps the most important  
one - when the gas system is installed and operating - many of these  
systems are not activated for up to 5 years after waste is placed,  
thus that food waste from your Holiday dinner may be covered and  
compacted and generating methane well before the gas collection  
system is turned on.

Sally Brown has made some initial conceptual estimates of this using  
the gas production numbers from anaerobic digestion studies, so that  
is a place to start if you want to generate some numbers. This is  
important for a few reasons - first we need to know a lot more about  
how organics behave in landfills and appreciate that every landfill  
is different. But perhaps more importantly if there are to ever be  
carbon credits for composting, we need to be able to accurately  
calculate the avoided methane emissions from not landfilling organics  
(not to mention the benefits of applying compost - something else Dr.  
Brown is working on).

The USCC's Legislative and Environmental Affairs Committee is  
actively engaged in these issues. There are two Fact Sheets on the  
USCC Website which provide some good background.

http://www.compostingcouncil.org/education/resources.php

We are likely to see more efforts to overturn landfill bans in those  
states that have them and more efforts to get more organics back to  
landfills in those states that don't; most of this will be about  
alleged increases in landfill gas recovery. In addition to the  
problems listed above, the amount of electricity received from  
increasing organics in landfills is often grossly overstated. J.D.  
Lindeberg (Chair of the USCC's L&EA Committee) wrote an excellent  
critique of this in an effort to thwart efforts to overturn  
Michigan's landfill ban on organics.  This should also be on the USCC  
website.

The policy basis behind most of the state landfill bans on organics  
is as sound today as it was in the early 1990s - organics take up a  
lot of space in landfills. While a few people who should know better  
still labor under the misunderstanding that organics breakdown in  
landfills, we learn over and over again that this is overstated. A  
recent study by a landfill engineering company here in CA estimated  
that a particular county was spending $11 - $12 million a year in  
lost landfill space by using processed yard trimmings as landfill  
cover (A bizarre practice, which in CA is  equivalent to  
"recycling"). This was processed yard trimmings, with airspace  
savings calculated after compaction (so, fairly conservative). All of  
this was based on a relatively low tipping fee of $22/ton.

Given the current economic situation, I don't think any City or  
County can afford to be that wasteful.

Here's to a Happy New Year filled with composting opportunities!

See you in Houston.

Matthew Cotton
Integrated Waste Management Consulting, LLC
19375 Lake City Road
Nevada City, CA  95959
(530) 265-4560
Fax (530) 265-4547
matt at mattcotton.com
www.mattcotton.com

On Dec 30, 2008, at 2:21 PM, hirschsys at aol.com wrote:

>
> For future discusions:
>
> As active landfills put in gas collection systems they sometimes  
> claim to now be a recycling option because they capture?some of the  
> methane.? This has actually caused the closing of some good  
> composting operations due to yard trimmings being diverted back  
> into landfills.
>
> Does someone have the?statistics on this subject?? Estimates of the  
> carbon going into a landfill would be fairly?easy to calculate, the  
> captured methane coming out is measureable.? An estimate of how  
> long a landfill will continue to produce is? available so therefore  
> an efficiency should?have been calculated.? I am sure it has , I  
> just don't remember it.
>
> Could someone from the compost?group help me on this.???
>
> Thank you
> Myron Hirschman?
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