Agenda - Council - 11/25/1980 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- 4 - SUmmR . This report contains goals, guidelines and recommendations that the seven Metropolitan Area counties can use in developing alternatives to sanitary landfills as the Region'S near-exclusive means of disposing of its solid waste. The objective is to reduce, or abate, the amount of solid waste that would have to be landfilled in future years. Difficulties in siting new land- fills, risks of groundwater pollution and growing demand for natural resources in relation to supply have all raised seriOUS questions about the Region's continued reliance on landfills for dealing with solid wastes. The Minnesota Legislature recognized these problems when it passed the 1980 State Waste Management Act. Among the provisions of the act is a requirement that the Metropolitan Council prepare a land disposal abate- ment report to provide a framework for county planning of abatement ~rograms. Abatement programs can be categorized according to four basic methods: - Waste reduction--reducing the amount of waste material that is thrown away at the source of waste generation. - Waste separation--sorting waste to recovery recyclable materials, such as metals, glass and paper. - Waste processing--shredding and baling of wastes, thereby reducing the volume of solid waste and the amount of space it would occupy in landfills. - Resource recovery--for example, burning waste to recover heat and composting organic materials. Metropolitan Area is expected to produce 2.5 million tons of solid waste in 1981, and about 3.1 million tons by the year 2000, not including thh amount of waste that is currently being recycled. To accommodate these wastes, the Region could need as much as 5-1/2 times the landfill capacity it has now by the year 2000, unless abatement programs reduce the amount of waste requiring landfilling- Even if five of the Region's 11 landfills are allowed to expand as pro- posed by the year 2000, the Region could need four times the landfill capacity it has now. If waste generation trends continue, the Region will run out of capacity at its existing landfills between 1985 and 1987, even if the proposed landfill expansions are approved.