Where Does Traveling Garbage Go?

As Landfills Close in Big Cities, Garbage Travels Farther

Excerpts from an AP report: Read the whole article at: http://enn.com/today.html?id=8215

July 12, 2005: By David B. Caruso, Associated Press

Environmental News Network reports that in 2003, nearly a quarter of all municipal trash in the United States crossed state lines for disposal, according to the Congressional Research Service. Ten states imported at least 1 million tons of trash that year, up from only two states in 2001.
At issue for many importing states is the smell and the threat to the environment if the garbage is handled improperly -- reasons that more urban trash is winding up in rural communities where political resistance is likely to be minimal.
For instance, New York transports more than 1,300 tons of garbage each day to Fox Township, Pa., located in hilly hunting country 130 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
Michael Keller, a township supervisor, said living near the landfill isn't that bad because it's hard to smell or see it from the street. But he can't shake the worries that the landfill's protective liners won't hold up forever.
"My concern is that 50, 60 or 70 years from now, they'll be saying, 'What were those guys thinking, allowing something like this to be built in this community?' "he said.
......... Michael Town, director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club. "Transporting all of this garbage so far away means that the people that generate it don't have to deal with its consequencences." Town said. "And if that's the case, where is their incentive to create less of it?"
Source: Associated Press