Example Landfill with Litter Issues

This landfill is located on the Canadian Prairies in an area that is un-sheltered and is exposed to windy conditions that are typical of the southern portion of the Canadian Prairie Provinces.   

At this point in time, the operators maintained a large open working face that was about 25 to 30 feet high.  Waste was unloaded from self-haul customers at the bottom (toe) of the working face, and commercial customers unloaded at the top.   

Vehicles unloading at the bottom of the face were somewhat sheltered and litter catchment fences were around the tipping area, but were not well positioned for best protection.

The commercial vehicles unloading at the top were exposed to high winds and there was no litter control fencing provided for shelter or litter catchment. 

To add to the litter issues, effective bylaw and bylaw enforcement was lacking.  Loads on inbound vehicles were often unsecured.  This led to litter along roads leading to the site and contributed litter issues at the landfill. 

The operators were provided with well designed portable litter catchment fences.  The fences were not effectively used around the working face.  Fences were placed around the lower tipping area, but they were not well positioned to closed the gaps between fence sections.    These fences were not effective in catching blowing litter off the working face, simply because of the height of the working face.   The tipping area at the top of the face, which was the most exposed to the wind,  had no litter fencing available.  

THE RESULTS

Recommendations

The recommendations for litter management at this site included:

-  minimize and control the size of the working face

-  increase the amount of portable litter catch fences

-  place portable fences where they will be effective and close gaps

-  add portable wind-break fences to shelter exposed tipping areas

-  establish effective controls for un-secured loads

-  implement a litter retrieval program

Perception = Reality

This site has an image problem.  if un-managed, litter is probably the first thing that a customer or a neighbour sees at a landfill.   Litter leaves a negative image in one's mind, and if not addressed properly, it can lead to distrust in all aspects of a landfill operation and management.  

A well maintained site with an effective litter management program leaves a positive image.  Customers using the site tend to be more cooperative, simply because if you show that you care, they will care too.   Neighbours to the site will have more trust in the site owners and operators, and there are cases when neighbours to a well run landfill have spoken out in support.   Hard to believe, but it happens. 

 Issues with Landfill Litter:

• environmental impacts
• impact on private property
• leads to distrust
• leads to loss of credibility
• Regulatory non-compliance

What are the environmental impacts?

• blight on the land
• odours
• surface water impacts
• interferes with farm equipment
• can be harmful to farm animals and wildlife
• can impact property value

Owners and operators of landfills with litter problems face several liability issues:

• financial cost of clean up & fines
• legal issues with regulatory action and neighbour legal suits
• loss of political favour
• loss of community trust
• effect on business relationships

Perception = Reality:     If your neighbours perceive that you have a litter issue at your landfill,  then the reality is that you have a litter problem that needs to be addressed. 

Do you have a landfill litter problem?

Neal Bolton of Blueridge Services Inc. wrote a book "Landfill Operator's Handbook" which is probably the most useful book to a landfill operator that you'll find.  He also writes numerous article on landfill operation and safety.  In his writings, he often talks about litter control.  If you don't have his book, you should check it out.  Look up the web page for Blueridge Services Inc. 

In his writings, Mr. Bolton makes the statement that "all landfills have litter, but not all landfills have a litter problem".   Based on this statement, in my courses that I teach on this topic, I ask the following questions:

-  Do your neighbours complain about litter at your landfill?
-  Do the regulators comment on litter problems when they do inspections
-  Do you think you have a litter problem. 

If you can answer No to these 3 questions, then you might not have a litter problem. Of course, if the answer is Yes, then you have a problem that you need to address. 

I had this discussion today with a contractor of one of our operations.  We were out doing an inspection around the site and now that the snow has almost melted away, the ugly side of litter that has collected over the winter is showing its ugly head.  As we talked about getting after the spring clean up, I mentioned that my belief is litter on your site reflects your image.  If you don't tackle the litter problem, your image will certainly be negative.  When a site is kept clean, you display a positive and professional image. 

In my former life as a regulator, if I went onto a site that was clean, well organized, and had excellent litter control, my inspections were less likely to get too intrusive.  You might say I didn't look under the carpet to see what was hidden.   On the other hand, if I went onto a site that was disorganized and litter was abound, I would start looking deeper into the operation to see what else was wrong.  This was really because of a natural human reaction.  If everything visually looks right, there is an instant level of trust.  If it doesn't look right, there is no trust.  

The same can be said for the public reaction.  A clean site will gain trust, and messy site will lose trust.   A few years ago, well maybe more than a few (I'm getting to be an 'old guy" in this business), I got involved in a landfill with a severe public image problem.  The neighbours had lost complete trust in the landfill owner, the landfill operators, and the government regulators.   This one landfill consumed almost 80% of my time in that one year.  The regulators began looking into every detail including design, operating plans, groundwater,  waste acceptance, site controls, and of course litter.   This landfill had an ongoing litter problem that the site operators ignored even after their image was severely damaged.  The landfill operator, owner, regulators and public ended up in a lengthy legal hearing that only the lawyers seem to come out ahead, the municipality owners lost political credibility, the regulators lost credibility, and the landfill contractor eventually lost the operating contract.   If the litter problem had been properly dealt with by all parties in the first place , I don't believe this long drawn out nightmare would have happened. 

This is only one example of where lack of litter controls at a landfill have caused public distrust and loss of credibility by the owners and operators of a landfill.  I have seen too many examples over my career.  

There is an old saying "Perception is Reality".   You can apply this to your landfill.  If the public perceives that you aren't managing the litter at the landfill, chances are that your aren't. 

Stay tuned!  In future posts, I'll be talking about various techniques for litter control.

Looking After Stuff

I've spent most of my life looking after the stuff that most of you toss out and never pay much attention to where it goes or what happens to it. I've been fortunate to work with people who try new things and share their knowledge about what works and doesn't work. One of the things I have spent time learning about is litter control and waste management facilities, or more specifically, at landfills. Much of what I have learned is from the landfill operators who have been frustrated by this never ending challenge, but who have been inovative in their ways of controling this perpetual problem.

Litter control at landfills takes an effort to understand wind patterns and know where and how to operate and use these patterns to advantage. It takes knowledge on how to handle waste in windy conditions and knowledge of fencing systems to trap litter and sheltering methods to prevent litter from blowing.

Over a period of time, I hope to share what I have learned, and I hope that you will, in return, share your experiences and knowledge.