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Talkin’ Trash
“You’re standing on twenty five years of history here.” Sounds pretty momentous, huh? That’s what John Remy from SWACO told us yesterday when Dr. Kristel and I had the pleasure of a small group tour of the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill. As part of an upcoming public affairs project we were briefed on how the Landfill runs and what it takes to keep it running.
There’s a surprising amount of activity on the landfill, and not just the constant parade of trucks coming and going to deposit trash. The landfill is engineered, meaning it’s carefully planned to keep it from either falling in on itself or catching fire. About 50 people and giant hulks of machinery are used to deliver the trash from transfer stations via semi. This semi was driving onto the “tipper” when we visited:
And to compress the trash once it’s at the landfill:
This compactor weighs 90,000 pounds. The operators drive them over the trash constantly each day to maximize landfill space.
And to cover it at the end of each day – this is a “borrow” pit where dirt is taken from to cover the trash:
In the foreground the borrow pit, behind it fences to keep litter contained.
Here are my “trash fact” takeaways:
- The landfill is the second tallest point in Franklin County.
- The Franklin County Sanitary Landfill is one of the ten largest publicly owned landfills in the country. Because the landfill is publicly owned and only needs to cover operating expenses, the tipping costs here are significantly lower than at private landfills.
- There is a lot of room for innovation in waste management. Collecting and processing methane from the biodegrading organics in the Green Energy Center is one example of how SWACO is attempting to innovate.
- The landfill doesn’t smell nearly as bad as I thought it would
For more information about the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill, or to schedule a (FREE!) tour of the landfill for classes or community groups, visit the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio’s website (SWACO). A blog post the Columbus Underground also shows a video of the tipper in action.