Quantifying the effects of increased material recovery on King George County's landfill life-cycle costs

Abstract

In today's society, the disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste is an ever growing problem. Legislation has become increasingly stringent with regard to protecting the environment from groundwater contamination. As documented by the EPA, the proportion of waste disposed of in landfills has steadily declined throughout the past thirty years due to source reduction, waste diversion to combustion facilities, and material recovery efforts. This project examines the effects of material recovery levels on landfill life-cycle costs. A model has been developed to study the relationships between the operational costs, profit, and material recovery levels. The landfill in King George County, Virginia is used as the basis for studying the effects of increasing the current state required material recovery level from 25% to 50%.