Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
British Columbia
New Brunswick
Quebec
Antarctic
Ontario
Key
State-to-State
International
Mexico
Virgin Islands
Figure 4.3
Simplifi ed map of interstate traffi c in garbage. Trash-shipping routes from New York and
New Jersey, the biggest garbage exporters, are not shown to avoid clutter. (Edward W.
Repa, “Interstate Movement of Municipal Solid Waste,”
NSWMA Research Bulletin
May,
3, 2003)
New York City closed its major landfi ll on Staten Island in 2001 and
now must ship its refuse elsewhere. The city has 2,230 garbage collection
trucks that carry the trash to transfer points, from where it typically
leaves the state. Some trash goes as far as New Mexico. It takes 450
tractor trailers, traveling 135,000 miles in combined round trips and
burning 33,000 gallons of diesel fuel, to transport one day's worth of
the city's garbage to out-of-state locations.
15
Large cities pay as much as
$100 per ton to one of the thousands of haulage contracting companies.
In 2009 New York City paid $309 million to export more than four
million tons of waste, mostly to landfi lls in distant states. Federal, state,
and local governments spend billions each year on waste disposal. It
accounts for the majority of environmental expenditures.
Landfi ll Mining
“Raiding the dump” for food and salable materials is an urgent neces-
sity for many people in impoverished countries, and it may have eco-
nomic benefi ts in industrialized nations as well. In October 2008,
