US landfills are nearing capacity, but waste generation is not slowing down. With waste generation increasing and landfill capacity declining, generators need alternatives to landfilling—and should be actively searching for better options for safe, compliant, and sustainable waste disposal. Alternatives to landfilling are more than a trend—they’re a necessity.
The MSW Problem
Production of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the United States has been steadily increasing over the years. The last data, released in 2018, indicates more than 292 million tons of MSW production in a given year across the US.
One of the most common ways to dispose of MSW is by landfilling it; Over 50% of the MSW produced in the US is currently sent for landfill disposal. This is a big problem because across the US, and especially in the northeast, landfills are quickly running out of capacity.
What is municipal solid waste?
Municipal solid waste refers to any non-hazardous waste produced by households, organizations, or facilities. This is the everyday items that are “thrown away” over the course of normal operations.
What is a landfill?
A landfill is a designated area in which waste is buried. The waste is monitored in a well-engineered, well-designed, strictly overseen facility, most of which is often underground.
How do landfills work?
In landfills, waste is placed and compacted, then covered daily with a layer of soil. Waste then decomposes and resultant gases and leachates are closely monitored.
Why are landfills running out of capacity?
More waste is being produced than can be processed and disposed of by traditional landfills. Excess waste and minimal capacity are combatting one another.
Can we run out of landfills?
Yes. There is only so much land, and state and federal regulations dictate what land can be used as a landfill—once landfills are full, and we don’t have more land to put new landfills, that’s it.
How can I reduce landfill waste at my facility?
If you are hoping to reduce landfill waste, start looking into industrial landfill alternatives, which we dive into in this blog.
Why Alternatives to Landfilling Matter
Landfills can only do so much for waste disposal. They only have a certain amount of capacity, meaning they can only take so much waste. On top of this, landfills can cause human health and environmental problems. As such, many organizations feel regulatory pressure to divert waste and find commercial landfill alternatives.
There may also be operational benefits to finding alternatives to landfilling. Landfills in a convenient location for your facility may not be accepting waste; or, there may not be a landfill in a convenient location relative to your facility. Utilizing alternative methods (and thus, facilities) may make more logistical sense. Exploring alternatives to landfilling waste could improve operational efficiencies and may even provide cost savings in certain specific situations.
As an added bonus, many facilities have lofty sustainability goals in mind—finding industrial landfill alternatives will help align waste strategy with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and sustainability goals.
Truly, finding alternatives to landfilling help ensure safety, compliance, improved operations, and sustainability.
What regulations exist that encourage waste diversion?
Numerous regulations exist, enforced by various regulatory agencies, to encourage organizations find alternatives to landfilling waste:
- The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulates all aspects of non-hazardous and commercial hazardous waste disposal, as well as overall waste management.
- Massachusetts and California prohibit certain materials from entering the landfill
In addition to regulations, many states and counties have grant programs that businesses can apply for to help offset the cost of the equipment needed to implement facility landfill diversion programs.
Do landfills cause human health and environmental problems?
Yes, especially if the landfill is holding hazardous waste like regulated medical waste (RMW) or contaminated lab plastic (CLP) waste. Toxins and contaminants can leach into the soil or groundwater and contribute to public health problems or environmental degradation.
Alternatives to Landfilling
Luckily, the right disposal partner can help you find some commercial landfill alternatives that will help you avoid the consequences of landfill disposal—and achieve the benefits of alternative disposal methods.
Waste-to-Energy (WtE): Turning Waste Into Power
Waste-to-Energy (WtE) is a process that burns MSW at high temperatures and captures the emissions. These emissions are in turn used to generate electricity that can be fed back into the local grid. How does WtE work as a landfill alternative? It takes what would otherwise sit in a landfill and turns it into usable energy.
Pros of Waste-to-Energy
WtE processes enable increased energy in the overall grid, and cutdown on virgin energy production. These processes also reduce waste volumes by up to 90%, significantly easing the burden on landfills.
Drawbacks of Waste-to-Energy
While WtE helps solve the landfill problem, it does come with some drawbacks. Despite having modern scrubbers and post combustion metals recovery systems, some CO2, nitrogen oxides, and heavy metals can be released in the form of air emissions during the process, which negatively impacts the environment and human health. WtE plants can also be capital-intensive to build and maintain.
Source Reduction and Waste Minimization
Source reduction and waste minimization involves avoiding waste generation at the source, the point of generation (POG). This may mean opting to use reusables in place of single-use plastics, changing standard operating procedures (SOPs) to use more of a given chemical and thus produce less waste, or use scaled, informed procurement so excess material isn’t ordered in the first place.
Material Recycling and Recovery
Often, certain wastes can be recycled via mechanical and chemical recycling methods.
Lab Plastics Recycling
Through certain proprietary processes, contaminated lab plastics and regulated medical waste can be recycled and turned into a new, usable product (like recycled plastic lumber boards). While the conversion is not typically 1-to-1 (a recycled pipette tip may not be able to be turned back into a recycled pipette tip), this alternative to landfilling is still a high-impact way to prioritize recycling and sustainability, safety, and compliance in a closed-loop system.
Alternative Engineered Fuels (AEFs): Cleaner Industrial Fuel
Alternative engineered fuels are created by recovering waste materials such as plastics, paper, textiles and rubber and converting them into high-energy fuel in processes like fuel blending and solvent recovery. These materials are sorted, shredded and processed to meet specific standards, making them a reliable and cleaner-burning substitute for coal and petroleum coke in industrial processes, especially in cement kilns.
Benefits of AEF
Alternative engineered fuels produce lower emissions than direct waste incineration especially when used in controlled industrial systems. AEFs also help energy-intensive industries reduce fossil fuel use and meet climate goals, and can be tailored to meet specific fuel specifications and don’t require new power generation infrastructure.
Challenges of AEF
Alternative engineered fuels must be carefully sorted and processed to meet fuel quality standards. AEFs also have end use limitations and are only suitable for industries with compatible high-heat combustion systems like cement kilns.
Composting and Anaerobic Digestion
Certain food, organic, and biodegradable lab wastes can be composted, which involves using anaerobic digestion to break down these materials. The results are nutrient-rich soil amendments and biogas that are used to improve plant growth.
Reuse and Repurposing Programs
Certain waste partners offer asset recovery through reuse and repurposing programs. This may include things like redistribution of unused products, reuse of construction and demolition (C&D) materials in other projects or elsewhere in the same project, and even utilizing reusable containers for disposal (in certain cases).
What does waste diversion look like for construction & demolition waste?
There are a number of specialized recycling and reuse options for construction & demolition (C&D) materials. Organizations can maximize materials reuse by incorporating waste disposal into a C&D waste management plan before a project even begins. This way, the project can design around deconstruction and result in waste that is able to be recycled or reused easily, instead of haphazardly.
Biological Treatment and Bioconversion
This process involves utilizing microbial, fungal, and/or enzyme-based treatment methods to remove contaminants from waste and turn them into useful products or materials.
Landfill Mining and Reclamation (LFMR)
This long-term solution opens up the potential for material recovery. By excavating and processing materials that already exist in landfills. This ensures better overall waste management and opens up room in landfills for other materials that cannot be otherwise disposed of.
Sustainable Materials Management
What is sustainable materials management? Sustainable materials management describes the hierarchy in which waste should be managed to maximize sustainability. This framework, set forth by the EPA, places emphasis on source reduction first, then recycling and composting, then energy recovery, followed by treatment and disposal. While all of the alternatives to landfilling help solve the landfill capacity problem, this overall hierarchy should be consulted when making commercial waste disposal and management decisions.
To determine which alternatives to landfilling are right for your facility, you need to look at a number of factors, including:
- Waste stream type
- Waste volume
- Facility location
- Compliance requirements
Input all of these considerations (and any other facility-specific considerations) into your trusted decision-making framework, as well as the sustainable materials management disposal hierarchy framework, to help determine what works best for you. Sometimes it helps to work with an experienced commercial waste disposal partner who can review your operations, utilize best practices, and tap into a network of waste disposal facilities to help you figure out what’s right for you.
Can using landfill alternatives help companies meet sustainability goals?
Definitely! Reuse and recycling, AEF, WtE, and other waste disposal strategies are less taxing on the environment, preventing environmental contamination and reducing reliance on virgin resources.
How can a waste audit help determine the best landfill alternative?
A waste audit will review all generated wastes and operational processes, figuring out gaps and opportunities for improvement. This will help determine if waste minimization is needed, and pinpoint the waste streams involved—thus allowing for a determination to be made about how each waste should best be disposed of.
Can recycling, AEF, and other alternatives to landfilling be used together in a waste diversion strategy?
Yes. The best waste diversion strategy is one that utilizes multiple waste disposal technologies, maximizing methods for each specific waste stream.
Partnering With Triumvirate Environmental for Waste Reduction
There isn’t going to be a single “silver bullet” to solve all landfill issues; There’s no one alternative to landfilling that is better than another. The best option is to utilize a variety of technologies in concert with one another to reduce landfill use as much as possible.
If you need support figuring out the best alternative to landfilling for you, it may be worthwhile to partner with Triumvirate Environmental. With AEF, WtE, recycling, waste management, and more services, we know what works—and what doesn’t—for every waste stream. We also offer customized commercial waste disposal and management solutions depending on your facility’s specific needs, as well as a national footprint to make sure location won’t be a prohibiting factor in your landfill alternative journey. And, with deep compliance and regulatory expertise, as well as end-to-end recycling and sustainability and waste diversion support, our experts can support your waste management and disposal journey every step of the way.
How can businesses start reducing landfill waste today?
The best first step to reducing landfill waste is to contact an experienced waste partner like Triumvirate Environmental.
Contact us today to optimize your waste strategy, or learn more by clicking the link below.
