Ninth Annual Landfill Capacity Report

Executive Summary

The Illinois Solid Waste Management Act of 1986 requires the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish an annual report "regarding the projected disposal capacity available for solid waste in sanitary landfills." This publication fulfills that requirement.

Reporting Periods — Landfills report disposal volumes quarterly and capacities annually. Disposal volumes for 1995 include all nonhazardous solid wastes landfilled in Illinois from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1995; available disposal capacity is that which remained on Jan. 1, 1996.

Disposal Volumes — Since tracking began in 1987, nonhazardous solid wastes landfilled in Illinois dropped from that peak year's total of 50.5 million cubic yards, to a low of 41.0 million cubic yards during 1992 and 1993, then climbed to 46.8 million cubic yards in 1995.

Nonhazardous Solid Waste Landfills — The number of landfills accepting nonhazardous solid waste for at least a portion of a calendar year has fallen from 146 in 1987, to 58 in 1995. This decline is expected to continue. Nearly 85 percent of Illinois landfills are privately owned and operated; the remainder are publicly owned and are either publicly or privately operated.

Counties With Landfills — Forty-two of the state's 102 counties had one or more active landfills in 1995.

Disposal Capacities — Since tracking began in 1987, landfill capacities have grown from a low of 273.6 million cubic yards, on Jan. 1, 1988, to a high of 473.8 million cubic yards, on Jan. 1, 1996.

Capacity Growth — Available capacity has grown sharply on two occasions: 1988's growth of 106.7 million cubic yards preceded seven years of capacities in the upper 300-million-cubic-yard range; during 1995 capacity leaped by another 111.7 million cubic yards, to its current peak of 473.8 million cubic yards.

Capacity-to-Disposal Ratio — Dividing reported remaining capacity by total wastes landfilled annually yields a doubly useful ratio: For example, for each cubic yard of waste landfilled in 1987 there remained 5.4 cubic yards of available capacity. By the end of 1995, this ratio had grown to 9.9 cubic yards, which is just another way of saying the state currently has 9.9 years of remaining landfill capacity, assuming no new capacity is added and disposal rates remain unchanged.

Factors Affecting Capacity — Landfill capacity is increased when existing facilities are expanded or new facilities are built. Capacity is reduced when disposal rates rise or when landfills close prematurely. Capacity is conserved when selected wastes are prohibited from landfilling, when wastes are diverted to out-of-state facilities, when they are incinerated, or are reduced at their source or are selectively recycled.

Waste Imports and Exports — Thirty-five Illinoisl andfills reported receiving 4.3 million cubic yards ofnonhazardous solid wastes from other states during 1995, or 9.2 percent of all such wastes landfilled in Illinois during the calendar year. There is no requirement for reporting the diversion of wastes to out-of-state landfills.

Local Siting Requirements — County and municipal governments, and not the Illinois EPA, decide if a site is suitable for a new pollution control facility. The Illinois Environmental Protection Act limits the Agency's review to design and engineering issues exclusively. Local siting must be received before the Agency can consider a developer's permit application.Local governments have thus far approved siting for eight landfill expansions and six new landfills; pending are localdecisions for three landfill expansions and two new landfills.

Waste Transfer Stations — These facilities seek efficiency by consolidating wastes into cost-effective loads for shipment to disposal sites. In 1995, Illinois had 66 active transfer stations. Of this number, 35 were in Cook County and 16 were in Chicago. Current municipal waste-management plans call for the development of up to 14 new transfer stations.

Annual Waste Generation — Multiplying the average waste-generation rate of 6.2 pounds per capita per day, by an estimated 1995 Illinois population of 11,829,940, suggests the state's residents generated some 13.4 million tons of solid waste. To this amount can be added some 1.3 million tons of wastes received from other states. Records show that 14.1 million tons of solid waste were landfilled, 278,000 tons were compostedand 84,000 tons were incinerated during 1995. Roughly 3.4 million tons of materials were removed from the state's waste stream through recycling; however, this is an imprecise number because recycling information is estimated and more than half of reported recycling data covers time periods other than calendar year 1995.

Recycling Rates — Each county's recycling coordinator, plus their counterparts in solid waste planning agencies in Cook County and Chicago, were asked to provide recycling data. Of 106 recycling surveys distributed, 85 were completed and returned. These surveys revealed local recycling rates of less than one percent to 38 percent, for a weighted statewide average of 21 percent.