With visions of higher trash collection fees on the not-too-distant horizon, Johnson County commissioners will look at ways this year to squeeze as much use as possible out of the county landfill in Shawnee before it runs out of space.
That could happen as early as 2037 — only 13 years off, according to projections from a January regional landfill study by the Mid-America Regional Council.
“It’s a big hole in the ground and it will eventually fill up,” said Trent Thompson, the county’s solid waste program manager.
Commissioners heard the sobering presentation on landfill capacity last week. Although the study estimated 19 to 37 years of capacity left in landfills throughout the region, the Johnson County landfill’s worst-case scenario has it possibly closing much earlier.
The landfill has already started filling its last area
About 80% of waste generated in the county goes into the Shawnee landfill owned by Waste Management. Last year, the landfill got the permit to begin filling its last cell, or waste-holding area designated for dumping, Thompson said.
The study estimated the Johnson County landfill could run out of space somewhere from 2037 to 2043.
The study, by Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company, looked at 11 different scenarios for the seven active landfills in the Kansas-Missouri area. The range is due to variables in population growth and diversion practices like composting, among other things.
The Kansas landfills, which include Shawnee, Lawrence and Topeka, have by far the most capacity left as those in Missouri begin to wind down. The study indicates Kansas landfills have 72% of the total remaining regional capacity, while Missouri landfills are at just 28%.
What happens when a landfill runs out of room?
Once a landfill runs out of space, the two main options are to create a new landfill or ship trash off to other landfills.
Most other landfills are miles outside the metro area in places as far as St. Joseph, Warrensburg and Sedalia. The closest Kansas landfills in operation now are near Lawrence and Topeka.
Hauling the trash could result in higher fees, while creating a new landfill often gets neighbor opposition, like the one proposed near Lee’s Summit.
Moreover, a new landfill takes more than 10 years to get sited and permitted, Thompson said.
Commissioner Jeff Meyers, former mayor of Shawnee, said he’s always been told starting a new landfill takes more like 15 years. As for the worst-case scenario for the county landfill, “to me we’re in that 15-year window.”
Composting would help slow down the process
Thompson said environmental staff and solid waste planners hope to increase the amount of trash that is diverted from the landfill through composting. To that end, the county needs a more complete composting infrastructure, Thompson said.
More food composting might be one way of doing that, Thompson said.
Food waste accounts for about one-fifth of the waste from county residents going into the landfill, he said.
The county website offers some options for food composting here.
Composting could also be increased with more participation from apartment complexes, he said, although the county doesn’t currently have the staff to regulate it on that scale, he added.
How are county leaders responding?
Commissioners expressed their commitment at the informational presentation at the board’s meeting on Thursday, Feb. 8.
“Alarm bells are ringing. I think this needs to be a top priority,” said Commissioner Becky Fast. Ten years ago, the county decided to separate yard waste from trash, she noted. “That was a hard decision. Now everybody does it. Commercial (composting) could be a harder decision. If we don’t want trash fees to double, triple, because we have to send trash two hours away, we have to take steps.”
Meyers said he’s also in favor of composting on a larger scale. But even those steps probably won’t prolong the landfill past 2043, he said. “I’m thinking that it will prolong it to help us be able to get to 2043.”
The Johnson County landfill gets waste from about 18 counties and is filling more quickly than originally estimated, Meyers said. “I don’t want us to wait for it to become a crisis situation.”
The next waste management plan for the county will look out as far as 25 years, Thompson said. It is expected to be presented to the commission in August.
Go deeper: Learn more about the landfill’s operations here.
