It’s been over 25 years since the last new Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfill broke ground in PA.
Solid waste industry newsletters regularly complain that the US is running out of MSW landfill space. The chart below shows the Northeast is especially affected by this:
Remaining Landfill Capacity in 2021 and Annual Rate of Capacity Loss
| Region | Remaining Capacity (years) | Annual Rate of Loss |
| Northeast | 8 | -5.0% |
| Southeast | 14 | -2.5% |
| Midwest | 11 | -4.0% |
| Western | 22 | -1.5% |
| Pacific | 17 | -1.9% |
| USA | 15 | -2.6% |
source: https://sweepstandard.org/time-is-running-out-the-u-s-landfill-capacity-crisis/
Why not just build more new landfills? Simple – municipalities throughout the US are rejecting the damage to their infrastructure, loss of farm land and the inevitable pollution of the soil, air, groundwater, streams and rivers.
Let’s look at what is happening in Pennsylvania. Here and there some landfills are able to expand operations within or as part of previously permitted space, though even then to much objection from residents. Modern Landfill’s proposed “expansion” is not an example of what has been allowed by municipalities in recent years. It will be built on operating farms that have never before been the site of a landfill. This is known as “greenfield” construction.
There are 2560 municipalities in Pennsylvania. According to PA DEP there are currently 43 remaining MSW landfills. Also according to DEP records, the last greenfield construction of a MSW landfill in PA was over 25 years ago.
In December of 2020, Lower Windsor Township joined the other 2559 PA municipalities by rejecting an attempt for the greenfield construction of a landfill next to Modern Landfill. See: [Township Supervisors Cease Negotiations with Republic Services Regarding a New Landfill] Why, if we are so in need of new landfill space in PA have none of the 2560 municipalities thought they were a good deal in 25 years?
Pennsylvania has 6 Waste-To-Energy (WTE) plants. Two of these are 9 miles from Modern Landfill. A third is 22 miles. We are rich in WTE plants in our area, and they will never have to expand their small footprints to continue taking our trash.
The simple fact is that WTE facilities are far less polluting, more energy efficient, and far safer to human health than landfills, which is why the rest of the developed world has adopted WTE over MSW landfills. See: [There are Better Ways to Dispose of Trash]
Why doesn’t Republic Services build and operate WTE plants if they are so much better? As a $30 billion market cap publicly traded corporation, Republic doesn’t care about “better.” They necessarily care about “profits this year.” They are going to ride the landfill bus into the ground because buying a farm and making a pile of trash on it requires relatively little upfront investment for the 50 or so year long payoff. WTE facilities are technology intensive and very expensive up front to build. For Republic to turn their 186 operating landfills into 186 WTE facilities, they’d have to bleed money for decades. Their shareholders wouldn’t put up with that. Someone else will build the new WTE plants.
There will be no more new MSW landfills built in PA. There haven’t been in over 25 years. The reasons for that are more valid than ever.