Title
Resolution to Oppose Lifting the Ban on Landfilling Yard Waste for Landfills
Memorandum
The Michigan House of Representatives passed bills (HB 4265 and HB 4266 ) on March 15, 2012 to lift the ban on landfilling yard waste for landfills in response to the landfill industry’s pressure.
According to testimony provided to the State House of Representatives on March 6 by Ann Arbor’s environmental coordinator Matt Naud, “Ann Arbor has created a composting program that is 27 percent less expensive per ton of material than landfilling.” Naud adds, “The sale of the compost end-product also benefits the city. This use of the compost creates jobs and generates new funds to help support recycling and composting programs in the local community.”
The cost to collect and dispose of Ann Arbor’s garbage in landfills currently costs $24.83/ton, with anticipated increases each year. In comparison, composting costs are $19.00/ton and are expected to decrease during the next five years. Ann Arbor collects an average of 10,000 tons of yard waste per year from city properties. Landfilling these tons would cost the city an additional $58,000.00 per year. Ann Arbor’s compost site also receives yard waste from other communities and helps lower the solid waste costs for other municipalities.
The suggestion by landfill operators that yard waste buried in landfills contributes a significant source of “green energy” from captured methane gas is not supportable. There is ample research demonstrating that perishable organics (including grass clippings, leaves, and food waste) will decompose and release methane into the atmosphere during the initial three months of landfill burial-long before the gas collection systems are installed and operational. Even under optimum circumstances, less than half of the remaining landfill gasses are captured for energy production. The escaping methane gas from landfills contributes a potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, with 23 times the heat-...
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