Can we escape landfills?

Can we escape landfills? As a sustainability professional, and a citizen of the United States, what actions should I prioritize if I wanted to do such a thing? Did the creative writers at Futurama have it right when they predicted a need to launch trash into space ??

Good news everyone! We are, in fact, on our way to reducing our reliance on landfills …probably. Based on data from the EPA, the number of active landfills has been in a steady decline since the 90’s, despite our growing population and associated consumption; What welcomed news! It’s one encouraging data point.

The EPA doesn’t seem to document expected capacity per landfill location, but they do document current pounds disposed at open sites. Lucas Cyr , my husband, made some assumptions based on the data from the EPA . He calculated an estimated fill rate using data from sites that had previously closed, the number of years it took them to be full, and the amount of total tons of waste collected at the landfill. Then looked at the open sites, the amount of pounds collected to date and assumed what size they would be at their expected closure date. More good news, the available capacity is *probably* flattening! This would suggest that the officials procuring landfill space assume we can serve a growing population with less capacity per person.

With these new facts, I have some hope that perhaps the answer is yes, we can eventually escape landfills.

So, why do landfills suck? Recently The Recycling Partnership did a decent job of summarizing some of the key challenges with landfills. At the end of the day, they are an inefficient and ineffective way to manage waste, especially if you see value in waste as those of us who want to drive a circular economy do. Scarcity breeds effective resource management, and what is old is new again. We have lost sight of that in a world of abundance.

The US began its waste management journey in earnest in 1895, when a then-filthy New York City stopped throwing all its garbage and other (literal sh*t) waste into the streets and the ocean. The leader of this shift was Colonel George E. Warning (Humes 39-40). He even got his army of White Wings to start sorting the trash for composting and recycling. They established the first Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) and generated monetary value from the waste for the city (Humes 39-40). It seems we started strong, and as with most of our environmental challenges, the industrial revolution and invention of plastic derailed any control over waste management. How do we get back to valuing waste??

More good news, there are a host of cities striving toward zero waste. The EPA is tracking and sharing out key learnings from these endeavors in forms of case studies . San Francisco has successfully diverted over 80% of waste away from landfills. That’s a huge accomplishment. Each city is focused on different aspects of decreasing waste sent to landfill, but they all have zero waste goals and roadmaps. Denmark has been experimenting and scaling new waste to energy solutions that have allowed them to reach zero waste (Humes 225-236).? More glimmers of hope in an otherwise sad reality of the 146M tons of waste going to landfill in the US each year.???

So, what’s in a landfill? Again, the EPA comes through with mildly recent data. This, of course, only leads to more questions. Nonetheless, we must understand the facts first before we can form an opinion on where to focus next. In the spirit of Pareto , let’s get to ~80% of the waste to understand how we might make material impact on diversion on the largest levers: Food & yard trimmings, plastics, paper, metals, wood, and for good measure, textiles.?

Food and yard trimmings combined is the largest major contributor to landfills at over 30%. If food waste was a country , it would be the fourth largest carbon emitter. Record scratch. Wait, what? Something that nature can easily dispose of, with little cost, and its byproduct also has monetary value, is the largest contributor to landfills? It is seemingly the definition of a circular economy. Why isn’t composting more prevalent? Shockingly, even though yard trimmings are 7% of what’s in landfills, 63% of the yard trimmings produced in the US are, in fact, composted. We can do it! Let’s assume for a moment that you convince the US government to wrap composting into municipal waste management practices as it is seemingly low cost and has a value at the end of its life. If we replicate the success in San Francisco, by my calculations you should be able to compost at a rate that is over the national average of food waste generated per person per year, based on 2010 baseline (Beyondfoodwaste & USDA). This means I believe it is safe to assume the US could achieve zero compostable material to landfill, if it were a priority.?

18% from Plastics - this makes sense, recycling is confusing and there’s a lot of breakdowns in the process. What if you took all the PET (number 1) out of the landfill? How much would be left? And then number 2, HDPE? Number 1 and 2 plastics are widely accepted, and relatively easy to recycle due to the value at their end of life. Other plastics lack the value, infrastructure and innovative solutions to support end of life. However, one could assume that if we implemented good recycling policy and improved infrastructure, could we keep at least the PET (1) and HDPE (2) out of the landfill? Good news, Oregon will eventually answer this question when their study is complete later in 2023. Until that data is available, we can deduce that the answer is likely yes given the success of deposit return schemes in European countries. If you could convince everyone to always recycle just those two materials 100% of the time, you would eliminate about 30% of the plastic going to the landfill (Greenpeace). That feels material, pun intended.?

Wait, paper is the third biggest contributor? Isn’t paper very recyclable? I see “made from post consumer material” on all my napkins. I’ve seen first hand how paper companies have invested in materials recovery facilities (MRF) that are embedded into their manufacturing processes in the most cost effective way. The EPA says that roughly 68% of the paper waste generated is recycled. What is causing the leakage here? Is it the economics of the paper recycling supply chain? One hole in the bucket seems to be non-recyclable paper products like those with coatings put on paper for it to withstand the elements. Paper is inherently biodegradable, unless you coat it with forever chemicals, think fast food containers (Dondero 89). So, where I can vote with my wallet, I will choose recyclable paper.?

Metal is next at 9.5%. Roughly 20% of that is aluminum, a fully and endlessly recyclable material. If you could convince everyone to recycle 100% of the aluminum they use, that would shave off roughly 2% of this metal number. I understand the rest to be a mixture of e-waste, industrial waste, and other difficult to disassemble items that would need some deep research to understand how to tackle this bucket.??

A bit above 8% Wood - This is a complete black hole to me. Is this lumber? Or is it furniture? I couldn’t find much information on the biggest driver here, so my deduction is that it is a lot of difficult to disassemble items or items that have something harmful on them that’s difficult to remove. However, this is wild to me. Wood is inherently biodegradable, unless, of course, you add toxic chemicals and paint to make it not biodegradable and withstand the elements. Based on my limited knowledge in this space, I assume that innovation and investment would be required to tackle this challenge at scale.?

Finally, Textiles. Almost 8% of the waste in landfills, and if you include rubber and leather, it’s close to 10%; equating to ~16M tons. This is a fraction of what is created in the industry. For context, 65 million tons of second hand material was sent to Ghana in 2019 from the global market, which is 5% of the global second hand market (Hyde). The challenges with end of life for fast fashion will only continue and grow as the non-luxury market is expected to grow in the US and China at a rate that is potentially double the growth seen in 2022 (Imran, Achim). What if we, at least, recycled textiles that end up in our landfills through infrastructure that enables textile recycling? Unfortunately the infrastructure doesn’t exist. It seems clothes are re-sold in the US, exported to other countries or downcycled to rags, carpet padding and sound insulation (Chi Xu). There is a gap between textiles thrown away and the manufacturers who could reasonably use those textiles as a raw material. In fact, we know innovative companies already in the clothing and flooring industries are using more and more recycled materials. However their source for this material is often PET, not previously worn textiles. I estimate that we could probably shave this number down significantly through existing infrastructure, but some innovation would probably be needed.

If we can simply tackle the “un-sexy” stuff like composting and improving recycling rates, we could make a significant dent in our landfill needs. I estimate that if we leveraged existing technologies proven to be effective at scale, then we could eliminate roughly 46% of what ends up in landfill. This reduction is based on what’s right in front of us, no cool, sexy new innovative solutions need apply, just yet.?

This is not a wildly new point of view or conclusion to come to. The reality is that a lot of very intelligent and dedicated people are taking on improving recycling and composting infrastructure through policy advocacy and offering options outside of your municipal waste bill. It is partly on the consumer and largely on the infrastructure to support easy sorting and management of waste. If we had stuck with George’s plan back in the early 1900s, it would be second nature to separate. We still need innovation to figure out how to eliminate the other 54% of the waste created in the US. However, I am hopeful that if our generation can clear a large chunk of the waste to landfill, it creates breathing room for innovation to tackle the next wave.?

What are some practical things we can do today??Advocate for meaningful legislation and policy?

1. Advocate for a well designed, effective extended producer responsibility legislation (EPR) that includes composting and textiles.???
2. Advocate for composting with your local municipality, potentially using guidelines shared by BPI https://bpiworld.org/guiding-principle ?
3. Advocate for policy that improves recycling (Largely DRS & EPRs) - consider these principles outlined by Ellen MacArthur Foundation?
4. Advocate for EPR that includes textiles - again outlined by Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Evolve our behavior with that old gem: reduce, reuse, recycle in mind

1. Compost where possible - find somewhere here - https://www.makesoil.org/map ?
2. We use - https://www.compostnow.org ?
3. Always recycle at least Aluminum, PET (1) & HDPE (2), as these are widely accepted.?
4. When in doubt, throw it out. Use resources to find where you can take various materials that you aren’t sure are accepted with your local recycling program
5. Call your local MRF
6. Check The Recycling Partnership’s database?
7. Best Buy or local grocery stores sometimes have recyling drop offs
8. Do you have a Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHARM)? Atlanta does !
9. Before buying something new, think about readily available reuse resources like the library! They have ebooks, movies, and loads of resources. Children’s books especially are a favorite in my family.
10. Rent your clothes where it makes sense (only 2 to 3 uses expected)
11. Shop second hand or buy brands that use recycled materials
12. Repair your stuff if it breaks
13. Host a household item or clothes swap on your block or with friends?

What excites me most about the future is that we’re at a tipping point. Legislation conversations are as plentiful as they have ever been in favor of real change to increase recycling and composting. Cities like Boulder, Co and Austin, Tx are taking on strategic plans to rid their municipality of waste. Companies that are wildly different like Coke and Cox Enterprises are setting commitments to reduce waste. I’m hopeful that we can make a serious dent in the waste that goes to landfill in my lifetime, and I’m excited to do my part.??

?Sources: (yes, I checked out books from my local library to save on waste)

1. Edward Humes, Garbology , p 39-45, 225-236.
2. EPA Facts and Figures about materials, waste & recycling: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#Landfilling ?
3. Facts about San Francisco food recycling program, https://beyondfoodwaste.com/what-makes-san-franciscos-food-recycling-program-successful/ ?
4. USDA food waste facts, https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs ?
5. Dondero, Jeff, Throwaway Nation, p 89-101, p 121-129.
6. Greenpeace: Circular claims fall flat again, p20. https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/GPUS_FinalReport_2022.pdf
7. Hyde, Peace, Forbes Africa:? https://www.forbesafrica.com/fashion/2023/01/18/rags-not-riches-why-ghana-is-fast-fashions-dumping-ground/ ?
8. Imran Amed, Achim Berg, Business of fashion, State of Fashion 2023? https://www.businessoffashion.com/reports/news-analysis/the-state-of-fashion-2023-industry-report-bof-mckinsey/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw2cWgBhDYARIsALggUhoK5k90F_0EpqrSX5gBn3Qdxk3PvQE6IkeAGK0_tQxr6JuVbRoLCdkaAmTzEALw_wcB ?
9. Chi Xu, Dora, Ecocult, Circular Fashion: What’s the Difference Between Recycling, Upcycling, Downcycling, and Resaling? https://ecocult.com/circular-fashion-recycle-upcycle-downcycle-resale-definition/ ?