Neal Bolton

By Neal Bolton

All landfills receive trash, but most landfills also receive and stockpile a variety of other materials, including soil, greenwaste, wood waste, concrete, and asphalt rubble, to name a few. Typically, the cost to receive and handle these materials reflects the current tipping fee, though it may be based upon the estimated cost to process them. This is a common and reasonable approach.

And, after the cost is established, the resulting revenue goes into the pot along with the rest of the landfill’s gate fees. From then on, the landfill operates with the assumption that the fee charged for these other materials is sufficient to cover the cost of receiving, processing, and disposing of them—period.

There is often a disconnect between how the materials were supposed to be handled and how they are in fact being handled. Because the processes have been absorbed into the day-to-day operation, however, they become normalized. It’s almost as though the true costs don’t matter any more because they are in effect, lost in the shuffle of running the landfill.

So let’s step back and take a look at how those hidden costs of handling nonwaste materials can be found—and controlled.

First, we need to understand what a hidden cost is. Think of it this way. Suppose you are sitting at home with your family one evening and decide you’d like to watch a movie. You’re on a tight budget, so you decide to spend $2 on a rental fee rather than $20 at the theater. So you jump into your SUV and drive 8 miles to the video store. While cruising through the aisles you grab a bag of candy, some popcorn, and a 6-pack of soda. You pay the cashier and drive home. As you walk in the door, you can’t help but brag. “Oh, and by the way,” you say, “it’s even better than we thought. The video store had a special. They charge only $1 if we return the movie before 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. So I’ll just leave 20 minutes early and drop it off on my way to work in the morning.” Your spouse and kids are awed with your financial wisdom and discipline. Wow.

Of course, we can clearly see that this was not a $1 movie. If we count two separate trips to the video store, along with the candy, the popcorn, and the soda, that $1 movie really cost $23. But, oh, how we like to fool ourselves.

Now we’ll apply the same concept to the landfill operation. The asphalt and concrete rubble we receive is directed to a stockpile located somewhere out back. No, it doesn’t really matter where we put it, just someplace out of the way. A year later, after we’ve paid a contractor to crush and stockpile the material, we decide to use it for surfacing our next wet-weather tipping pad and the road that leads to it. So we hire another contractor to load it into trucks and haul it to the active fill area, which happens to be at the other end of the landfill. At the same time, we also pay the contractor to haul several tons of twisted rebar and concrete chunks to the landfill. It’s easier to bury the stuff than try to clean it up for recycling. But once the road and a tipping pad are completed and the mess cleaned up, you can’t help but brag about what a great budgeter you are: accepting all of that rubble for free and then converting it into a useful product. Wow.

Of course, when it’s someone else’s landfill, it’s easy to see that the “free” road base wasn’t free at all. Including the cost of crushing, hauling, and placing the material, along with the airspace consumed by the twisted pile of rebar, our “free” road base really cost $22 per ton. But, oh, how we like to fool ourselves.

Is there an alternative?

Sure. Consider charging a fee for the rubble you accept, perhaps a standard fee for clean rubble and a higher fee for large pieces or anything that contains rebar. Keep track of how much material you have onsite and compare it to how much you need for upcoming projects. When you reach your goal, raise the gate fee.

You should stockpile the material as near as possible to the location of your next road or tipping pad in order to minimize the hauling cost. You might even consider creating two separate stockpiles. Establish one stockpile for asphalt and small concrete that doesn’t need to be crushed and plan to use this material “as is” without any processing. And when you do crush the other material, require that the contractor thoroughly remove all chunks of concrete from the rebar and then place the steel in a trailer or bin so it can be hauled directly to a recycler.

Consultant Neal Bolton specializes in landfill operations and management.

MSW - July/August 2006