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Planning ahead for mounting challenges of special waste at landfills | Waste Dive

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Planning ahead for mounting challenges of special waste at landfills | Waste Dive

More and more, landfill operations are identifying those waste streams which predictably cause problems due to odors, reactions, fires and difficult to manage leachate. The list includes aluminum smelting and other metal wastes, high sulfur content waste streams from the oil and gas industry, and high moisture-containing wastes including biosolids and sludges. Growing coal ash disposal volumes also add to the complicated chemical mixture.

Wisconsin waste coalition forms to combat negative PFAS reputation | Waste Dive

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Wisconsin waste coalition forms to combat negative PFAS reputation | Waste Dive

A group of Wisconsin landfill operators have formed a coalition as they seek to avoid shouldering the blame for toxic chemical contamination, WXPR reported last week. The coalition comes as landfills grapple with the looming fallout from the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the waste stream. Chemical companies like 3M, Chemours, and DuPont are the manufacturers of PFAS, but the substances have wound up in landfills, composting sites, and wastewater treatment plants. The new Wisconsin coalition argues those manufacturers should be responsible for cleanup associated with the contamination. They also aim to improve communication between landfills and wastewater treatment plants, in addition to coming up with both short and long-term solutions to the PFAS problem. "We are sick and tired of having the finger pointed at the solid waste industry," Meleesa Johnson, administrator for Marathon County's solid waste department and president of the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin, told Waste Dive. "Until we actually have a conversation about the real cause and effect, we will only put a band-aid on the problem," she added.

This should be fun, especially for the lawyers who make the big bucks.

Farmers Are Using Food Waste To Make Electricity : The Salt : NPR

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Chew On This: Farmers Are Using Food Waste To Make Electricity : The Salt : NPR

As the season of big holiday meals kicks off, it's as good a time as any to reflect on just how much food goes to waste.

If you piled up all the food that's not eaten over the course of a year in the U.S., it would be enough to fill a skyscraper in Chicago about 44 times, according to an estimate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And, when all this food rots in a landfill, it emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. In fact, a recent report from the United Nations from a panel of climate experts estimates that up to 10 percent of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food waste.

So, here's one solution to the problem: Dairy farmers in Massachusetts are using food waste to create electricity. They feed waste into anaerobic digesters, built and operated by Vanguard Renewables, which capture the methane emissions and make renewable energy.

After a trash truck dumped a fiery load, dozens of mobile homes burned and an 89-year-old woman died – Los Angeles Times

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After a trash truck dumped a fiery load, dozens of mobile homes burned and an 89-year-old woman died – Los Angeles Times

The Sandalwood fire, named for a street near the mobile home park, began last Thursday around 2 p.m. and burned more than 1,000 acres over five days. It started when the driver of a garbage truck dumped a “hot load” — a pile of burning trash — along the side of 7th Street, said Capt. Fernando Herrera, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Garbage trucks often haul a dangerous cocktail of combustible items — batteries, pesticides, paint — and it’s not unheard of for drivers to dump a simmering load, Herrera said. Many residents of the mobile home park said it seemed unnecessarily reckless to drop the load next to a canyon of dry shrub backing up to the park. Ultimately, the fire destroyed 76 mobile homes and killed Arvickson and a second victim, whom officials haven’t yet publicly identified.