The words “Sanitary Landfill,” are to many people a contradiction—another Felix and Oscar, if you will, of the English language.  And no way, No Way, could this odd couple ever hope to fit comfortably together in the same sentence.

By Neal Bolton

Landfill, dump, tip, rubbish heap—no matter what you call it, the image brought to mind is, by and large, negative. It is quite unsanitary. Unfortunately, much of that image reflects the manner in which landfills have traditionally operated. Litter, rats, flies, and birds were, for many years a natural side effect of running a landfill.

You may be interested to learn that in his movie, The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock capitalized on the massive number of birds present at a large landfill to provide much of his footage. In another famous flick, The Great Outdoors, the late John Candy found entertainment by going to the local dump to watch the bears dig through the trash.

In our society, dumpy landfills have become an accepted and often expected fact of life.

But while it is often considered a good and honorable thing to live up to another’s expectations, sometimes we should not. Let us look closely for example, at some ways to overcome the common expectations of the local landfill.

We’ll start by taking a well-deserved pat on our own backs and acknowledge that today’s landfills are doing a tremendous job of disposing of society’s trash. I know it, and you know it, but lots of other people do not. And it is, in a way, our own fault.

To change the way people look at our landfills, we must change what they see ...when they look at our landfills. The solution is in a way, too simple, hidden in plain sight from those of us who are focused on complex thoughts of soil permeability, groundwater monitoring protocols, gas migration modeling and other intense issues.

My family recently visited the Vicksburg National War Memorial Park in Vicksburg, MS. While we were in Vicksburg, we toured a beautiful old home where General Grant had stayed during the Union occupation of that city. The confederate owner of the house, it was reported, salvaged much of his fortune by hiding it in a large safe, which was designed to look like a wooden cabinet. It apparently went undetected, all the while sitting in the dining room, in plain sight of the occupation forces, including General Grant himself.

So what is this simple, obvious solution that can help us improve the image of landfills? It is – simply – to get rid of those unsightly things that taint people’s perception of our landfills including birds, rodents, vectors, and litter.

We’ll examine the problems associated with each of these issues, discuss why they occur, and look at some of the many ways that savvy landfill managers are dealing with them.

Birds
Birds at landfills are an aesthetic problem as well as a potential health and safety problem. Birds can, and do, transmit diseases that can affect humans. Congregating birds may also create an aircraft hazard. There isn’t much good to be said about birds at landfills.

Birds are attracted to landfills as a food source, period. One would think that if we eliminated the food we could get rid of the birds. Of course, one effective method is to cover the waste quickly and thoroughly with soil or ADC. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. A typical wastestream analysis might show that food represents perhaps 5% of the waste entering a typical landfill. At that rate, even a small landfill—say, 150 tons per day—would receive 15,000 daily pounds of food as it is pushed, spread, and compacted throughout the waste. For a diligent bird, one that is willing to dodge the compactor as it rolls back and forth across the active face, these are easy pickings.

Prompt placement of cover material is an important part of bird control, but it is by no means the only part. Bits of food are spilled across the unloading area as the waste is pushed to the cell. Food is also scattered by the movement of tires, wheels, and track grousers. At best, even the most conscientious landfill operator cannot eliminate all of the food—or the birds it attracts.

Additional deterrents are almost always necessary in order rid the landfill of birds. These deterrents take many forms including:

• Noisemakers
• A grid of monofilament line
• Reflective tape
• Decoys, typically designed to look like an owl or other bird of prey
• Model airplanes
• Falcons

Noisemakers
Noisemakers work to control birds by scaring them away. The most common types of noisemakers include firecrackers and whistlers typically fired from a small pistol. These devices are nearly always effective at getting the birds off the ground and into the air. After a few shots, the birds may leave, but are just as likely to stay in the area and return to feed as soon as the coast is clear.

Some landfills also use propane cannons set up to fire at a regular interval. But again, once the birds to used to the cannon blast, though they may get up into the air, they will almost immediately return.

Monofilament Grid
A grid of monofilament line stretched above the active portion of a landfill can help deter birds, especially when it is first installed. A denser grid is more effective than one that is widely spaced. The smaller the grid, apparently, the better job it does of impeding the bird’s glide path. Fish hatcheries often use a tight grid pattern to protect their stock from flying predators.

Applying this approach to landfills creates some difficulty in terms of having to constantly relocate the grid system to follow the active fill area.

Reflective Tape
Many of the grape growers near my home in California hang strips of reflective tape throughout their vineyards to deter birds. This shiny and highly reflective ribbon has a metallic sheen. During even a very slight breeze, the vineyards seem to shimmer with reflected sunlight. Some landfills report good results by tying reflective ribbon around the active fill area. One landfill even combines systems by tying reflective ribbon on their monofilament line at regular intervals.

Birds are primarily attracted to landfills as sources of food.

Decoys
Decoys that resemble birds of prey are often used as part of a landfill’s bird control effort. Stationary perched owls are common, as are falconlike kites that are suspended on a string and designed to move, even in the slightest breeze.

Depredation Permits
Similar to falcon programs in their effectiveness, but perhaps slightly less palatable to some folks, depredation permits that allow landfill operators to shoot a limited number of birds. This option must also be applied consistently in order to train the birds to leave and stay away.

Model Airplanes
For many years, landfill operators have allowed model airplane hobbyists to round up birds and chase them away from their landfill. Again, if applied consistently, this can be an effective method.

Some innovators have actually come up with model airplanes that are designed and painted to resemble falcons. I don’t know if the seagulls know or care that the little plane buzzing after them looks like a falcon, but if it works it probably doesn’t matter.

One of the most effective lmethods of bird control available to landfill operators is that of hiring falconers.

Falcons
There ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby, and when it comes to controlling birds, falcons are very much the real thing.

One of the most effective methods of bird control available to landfill operators is to hire falconers, and of course their trained falcons, to scare and harass—and, yes, sometimes kill and eat—nuisance birds at landfills. Falcons are natural bird predators, and when a falcon shows up, the other birds leave.

But the cost to hire a falconer can be steep, with some landfills reporting fees of over $50 per hour to hire a falconer, and with the agreement often including a provision that if the falcon flies away, the falconer stays on the clock until the falcon returns. For many falconers, landfill work provides a way to generate income from what had otherwise been an expensive hobby.

If you have an opportunity to see a falconer at work, take advantage of it. You might be surprised to find that landfill falconry can be a very sophisticated operation.

I recently visited a landfill where I knew falconers were active. As I drove to the active fill area, I saw a man waving a stick with a plastic bag tied to the end of it back and forth above his head, as one might wave a flag during a political rally. Not being able to restrain my curiosity, I went up to him and asked, “What in the world are you doing?” Without hesitating he stated, “I’m practicing Pavlov’s theory of behavior modification on landfill seagulls.” Assuming my most cerebral stance, I looked at him and said, “Huh?”

He went on to explain, “We’ve been using falcons at this landfill for several weeks. When we first started, I stood near the active area of the landfill, much as I am now, and waved this bag and stick above my head. Of course the seagulls paid no attention to me.

“So after a few minutes of stick waving, we would fire off a few whistlers and firecrackers in the direction of the birds. That would get them up and moving, but they still wouldn’t leave. I’d keep waving the stick.

“Finally, we’d send up a falcon. When the falcon entered the landfill’s airspace, the seagulls scattered. Their instinctive fear of the falcon was reinforced when our falcon occasionally killed and ate a seagull.

“During this entire process, I kept the stick and bag moving. Within a few weeks, the surviving seagulls began to get the drift. When I’d show up and start waving the stick, you could almost see them thinking, ‘Uh oh, there’s that guy with the stick, next come the firecrackers and then that dreaded falcon...let’s get out of here!’ And the seagulls would leave.”

He went on to explain that from time to time it was still necessary to send up the falcon, just as a reminder to seagulls.

Sure enough, while he was talking, a lone seagull appeared in the distance, flying casually toward the landfill. The man began waving his stick as the seagull drew near, and, much to my surprise, the bird turned around and flew away.

Time and experience show us that the most effective birth-control programs rely on diversity. A guano-covered owl decoy or a battered monofilament grid located far from the active fill area are ineffective and offer testimony of the need to maintain and update any bird-control plan. Mix it up, keep them guessing, and you can effectively deter birds. And with all of the options available today, you could have a little fun doing it.

Effective bird-control efforts will often also include activities geared toward scaring the birds away.

Rodents
Rats and mice can carry and spread disease. Hantavirus and bubonic plague are two very serious and potentially fatal, diseases that can be spread by rodents (or the fleas they may carry).

Hantavirus can be present in rodent droppings. During cleanup activities, landfill workers can be exposed to the virus if they breathe the resulting dust. Wearing a HEPA dust mask can help minimize the risk.

Unlike hantavirus, which is transmitted by breathing, bubonic plague is an infectious bacterium most often transmitted through the bite of an infected flea. With only 10–15 cases of plague reported each year in the US, the likelihood of being infected is slight.

Rodents can also cause fires or electrical shorts by chewing through insulation on electrical wires and building nests in electrical panels. If machines are not used for a period of time, rats could build a nest in a machine’s engine compartment (i.e., on the exhaust manifold), which could in turn cause a fire.

Rats and mice, like birds, are often attracted to landfills as a food source. But unlike birds, rats and mice must also have a habitat. Birds stop by for lunch, but the rodents live there.

Along those lines, one of the most effective ways to get rid of rodents is to eliminate the junk piles in which they are likely to live. Many landfills that have a rodent problem also, coincidentally, have a junk problem. Old vehicles, bins, appliances, or brush piles can provide excellent habitat for rodents. Until the habitat is removed, other forms of control may not be effective.

Rodents can present a variety of risks, all of which can be eliminated by keeping your facility rodent-free. Depending on the location of your landfill, you may be able to control rodents with poison or traps. Many waste facilities opt for a more organic option and keep a few cats on the payroll.

Litter
Some landfill managers have accepted litter as a necessary evil and conceded the battle. These are the landfills where workers complain about litter but do nothing to try and control it: no screens; no fences; no operational changes. I’ve heard “insanity” defined as “doing the same thing over and over, while expecting different results.” This applies to those complainers who do nothing. For those want to do more than complain, here are some ideas.

Like the grandparents who think their grandkids are smarter and cuter than anyone else’s, most landfill folks believe their facility is windier than anyone else’s—and some of them are right.

The point is: Wind causes litter, and nothing more clearly defines a landfill’s public image than litter...or the lack of it. Landfill, or dump? Sanitary, or sleazy? In many instances it all comes down to litter control. This is why savvy landfill managers put so much effort into containing litter.

Litter control is a relative term based to a great degree one’s perspective—there are no absolutes. No landfill can contain all of the litter all of the time. On the other hand, every landfill can contain most of the litter most of the time.

The key is to identify where the litter originates and then come up with a means of dealing with it.

Landfill litter often originates in these three sources: uncovered loads; the tipping area; or while being pushed, spread or compacted. Here are some ways that landfills around the country are controlling litter.

Contain Those Loads
A sound litter control program should start on the roads leading to the landfill. Untarped loads of trash can create a wide swath of litter pointing straight to your landfill. As a first step, post signs to let your customers know that loads must be covered, and then back it up by establishing a policy or ordinance. To put some teeth in the program, establish a fee for uncovered loads and don’t be shy about collecting it.

For a covered-load policy to be effective, you must get out the word that you are serious. Posting signs, handing out flyers, and verbally notifying your customers are some ways to do this. Here’s another:

I recently heard a story about a customer who came to the landfill with his pickup and trailer both uncovered. When the gate attendant told him there would be an additional fine, he became very angry. Finally, the sheriff had to be called. When the sheriff arrived he found that the trailer had no license plate. Upon further inspection he found the pickup’s license plate, in fact, belonged to another vehicle, and the driver actually had borrowed it for his trip to the landfill. As things went from bad to worse, it was determined that there was an arrest warrant for this guy. In the end, the man was handcuffed, placed in the patrol car, and his truck and trailer were removed. By now, of course, a long line of customers was stacked up. The first person pulling onto the scales asked the obvious question, “Hey, what happened to that guy?” “Oh,” the gate attendant casually replied, “he didn’t have his load covered.”

Build Litter Screens
Most of the litter generated at landfills occurs between the time waste is dumped and when it finally gets covered. Gain control of this area, and you’ll win the war against litter. Start by placing litter screens along the downwind portion of the active area.

Landfills have historically built their own screens—or had them built—often using old pipe, fencing, or other materials recovered from the wastestream. I recently spoke with a landfill manager who constructed several portable fences and lots of perimeter fencing with used netting he purchased from a golf course’s driving range.

A lot of creative thinking goes into litter control, and it’s certainly not limited to landfill operators. Some innovative companies manufacture portable litter screens for the waste industry.

Manufactured screens can be adjusted to fit, and be moved by, various machines. Screen designs vary depending on the intended use. Most are, of course, intended to catch litter. Some are self-cleaning and others are designed to block the wind and create a protected work area.

Whether you build them or buy them, you’ll want litter screens that are portable, durable, and easily cleaned.

Cover Promptly
Covering waste with soil or ADC eliminates the risk of litter. This is one of the reasons experienced landfill operators keep the working face small and begin covering portions of each day’s cell as soon as possible.

Taking this concept one step further, some landfills use spray-on ADC material to tack down individual loads that appear likely to create litter. If you are considering ADC, the ease and speed of application is one of the factors you’ll want to consider.

The presence of birds, rodents, and litter may match the common ideas of a dump, but that stereotypical image does a disservice to the people in the landfill business who are working hard to take the world’s trash and deal with it safely and efficiently.

These problems can be solved. Progressive landfills prove it everyday.

Neal Bolton is a consultant specializing in landfill operations and management.

MSW - September/October 2006