Tennessee still not meeting goal to reduce dumped garbage
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee communities are reducing the amount of garbage in certain landfills, but are diverting some of the waste to other dumps with less state oversight, according to a new report.
Overall, the state still hasn’t met a goal originally set in 1991 to reduce the amount of solid waste going into Class I landfills by one-fourth, according to the report by the comptroller’s office.
In fact, it’s moving backwards.
In 2002, the year studied in the report issued last week, the per capita reduction and diversion rate for solid waste was 20.3 percent. In 2001, it was 24 percent, according to the Department of Environment and Conservation’s Division of Community Assistance.
Ron Graham, director of the division, said his staff is still studying the data to determine why the rate dropped.
Under the 1991 law, the waste reduction goal was to be reached by 1995, but lawmakers later reset the deadline to Dec. 31, 2003. The state has not yet analyzed last year’s data, which was due April 1.
Graham said he’s pleased with Tennessee’s progress and that in many cases communities that don’t reach the goal are still making a “good faith effort” to improve:
—The state has increased the number of recycling facilities from 160 in 1992 to 580.
—The number of unattended dumps has dropped since 1989 from more than 4,500 to 139.
—More than 19 million tires have been diverted from landfills since 1995, largely because of grants that counties receive to encourage them to collect scrap tires for other uses.
However, the comptroller’s office said the state isn’t examining how its grants are being used to ensure the waste reduction goal is met.
In fiscal 2002-’03, the state provided communities with $6.6 million in solid waste grants funded largely by a 75-cent “tipping fee” or surcharge on each ton of municipal waste received at the landfills.
A $1 fee on retail sales of new tires brought in $4.3 million last year to help local communities redirect waste tires away from landfills.
County officials and environmentalists agree the tire fee needs to be increased because it doesn’t cover all the costs of a program that has proven to work.
And Will Callaway, executive director of the Tennessee Environmental Council, says the tipping fee needs to be raised to better account for the cost — to the environment and public health — of simply dumping garbage.
However, legislators reauthorized the Solid Waste Management Act last month for four years and kept the tipping fee at 75 cents. No other major changes were made.
Not so in 1996. At that time, lawmakers decided that construction, demolition, landscaping and yard wastes that were diverted to Class III and Class IV landfills could be included in waste reduction calculations.
That sparked an ongoing debate over the goal of the solid waste law.
Local government officials say it was passed to address a lack of Class I landfill space and provide them with less costly ways to dispose of waste, according to the comptroller’s report.
But the law itself says the state policy was set “to protect and enhance the quality of its environment.”
The comptroller’s office suggests lawmakers spend the next few years re-examining the issue and the goal.
Some argue that diverted waste should not count as a reduction because it is being dumped in landfills that aren’t strictly regulated, “creating greater potential for dumping materials, such as toxic or hazardous substances, that could be problematic in the future,” the report says.
Those landfills don’t have to be lined.
“Tennessee seems to be shuffling the cards and hoping to come up with a better hand, but we’re still dealing with the same deck. That waste is still in Tennessee,” said Callaway.
The state already is having problems with contamination from old unlined landfills. In Dickson County, for example, industries buried toxic waste in the local landfill, which has since leached into private wells.
Still, the state does not assess the risk from older dumps unless someone reports a problem. The comptroller’s office suggests that the state develop a plan to do so.
Callaway agrees, and he also suggests that state contracts, particularly for highway and building construction, require the use of recyclable materials.
“The state can help create a market for recycled products,” Callaway said.
Some businesses already recycle to save money.
For example, Graham said, contractors who built the NFL Tennessee Titans’ stadium took old concrete blocks that were on site and used them under the building as fill.
Also, educational programs in schools also have convinced children to recycle and they’re teaching their parents, Graham said.
“We’ve come a long way in the last 15-20 years, but obviously we can go further,” Graham said.
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On the Net:
Comptroller’s Report: http://www.comptroller.state.tn.us