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Chicago landfills will be full in 10 years Submitted by Medill News Service on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 10:52pm.

Both taxpayers and the environment could be stripped of their green as Chicago-area landfills accumulate trash at more than double the rate of the state average, officials said last Thursday.

Dave Walters of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's Division of Land Pollution Control said, "There is so much waste being generated that it has to be transported out of the area to either Wisconsin, Indiana or downstate facilities, and that means the cost to taxpayers is going to jump."

And rapidly filling landfills aren't just affecting wallets.Transferring hundreds of thousands of tons of waste to other facilities burns fuel, and a lot of it, Walters said.

"Moving all that garbage produces added carbon emissions," he said. "Most of those trucks are running on diesel.

And although they are designed and inspected to prevent it, there's always the possibility of the landfills themselves leaking materials into groundwater and having some sort of contamination."

Metropolitan dumps in Cook and eight other neighboring counties have about 10 years of disposal capacity remaining - the lowest number in the state - according to data released Feb. 18 by the Illinois EPA's Landfill Capacity Report. Landfill life ranged from 15 to 54 years elsewhere in Illinois, with a statewide average of 22 years.

Although the Landfill Capacity Report points to a 30.6% decrease in waste accumulation in Region Two, which includes Cook, DuPage, Will, Lake, Kendall, Kankakee, Grundy, Kane and McHenry counties, the data can be deceiving, EPA officials said.

"It really doesn't mean less waste is being generated," said Maggie Carson, spokeswoman for the Illinois EPA. "The decrease is partly because we are just transferring waste to other areas outside the region."

Michael McNamee, director of recycling collections for the Chicago Resource Center, said the data show that the city's recycling system is flawed.

"I think most people are very willing to recycle, but recycling ordinances need to be enforced," McNamee said. "Inspectors have to make sure that commercial establishments are doing what they are supposed to. Much of the material from businesses that's going into landfills and garbage containers can be recycled, so it's a matter of inspecting and verifying that they are doing the right thing."

But despite the anticipated short life span of Chicago-area landfills, Carson said waste management in Illinois remains fairly stable: "There is still adequate landfill capacity in the state, just not in this area."

Chicago residents looking for a solution to overcrowded landfills need not look farther than their own homes.

"If people want to reduce landfills, it's easiest for them to do it on their own by recycling," said Matt Smith, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Streets and Sanitation. "You can also start using compost with the right training for a useful soil with lots of nutrients. There are a lot of things you can do to keep things out of the waste stream."

- Zachary Pardes, Medill News Service - Chicago

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