Landfills want yard waste ban repealed
Critics say bill would potentially screw up farmers and green businesses dependent on leaf and limb waste
A bill now zipping through the Gold Dome would allow landfills to damage the environment and stifle eco-industry jobs — all for the sake of a few extra bucks, say critics.
Sponsored by state Rep. Randy Nix, R-LaGrange, House Bill 1059 would allow local governments to repeal a 14-year-old state ban on dumping yard waste — e.g., the grass clippings and tree limbs you leave on the curb with your recycling — in certain landfills. The only requirement is that the methane produced by decomposing trash be captured and used to make energy.
Sounds kinda green, right? It would be if that yard waste weren’t already being put to good use helping the environment and hadn’t sparked a boom in green industries since the ban took effect. Environmentalists say the legislation would be one giant leap backward for the state — and a boondoggle for landfill companies.
At a lobbyist-filled Feb. 9 hearing on the bill, Jack Perko of Republic Services, a waste-management company whose facilities include a Moreland Avenue landfill that would benefit from the legislation, said the change would allow the company to capture more methane to generate — and sell — for electricity. Perko said one of Republic Services’ facilities currently captures enough landfill gas to heat 13,000 homes. Repealing the ban would allow the firm to produce more methane where the practice would make business sense, he said.