Environmentalists say a bill moving through the General Assembly would be a gold mine for a handful of landfill operators and a major setback to recycling and conservation in the state.
The bill’s supporters -- who won Round 1 in the Legislature this week -- want state law changed so 10 landfills can start taking in yard waste, processing it and reselling it as bioenergy. The additional dumping fees also could potentially boost their bottom line by millions of dollars.
If approved, the bill would end a state ban on yard trimmings in landfills that was imposed in 1996 with the stated goals of conserving landfill capacity and promoting recycling. Delaware this year became the 23rd state to impose such a ban.
The city of Atlanta and the federal Environmental Protection Agency are on the side of environmental lobbyists who are working to kill the bill. On the other side, the waste management companies have lobbyists, attorneys and what some would argue is a distinct advantage: They wrote the bill.
The latter was acknowledged at a meeting this week in which the state House Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee overwhelmingly voted to send the bill to the full House with a "do pass" recommendation.
Similar bills are being pushed by landfill operators in Florida and at least one other state.
State Rep. Randy Nix (R-LaGrange), the sponsor of Georgia's bill, said his measure would only exempt from the ban 10 lined landfills that have spent millions on the technology needed to capture methane and want to add yard trimmings, such as leaves, to the waste they're already processing.
Those facilities -- which by Department of Community Affairs estimates handled 43 percent of all landfill waste processed in 2007 -- would decide for themselves whether to take in yard trimmings, Nix said. The 40 or so other landfills in the state would still abide by the 1996 ban, he said.
Nix knows something of how it works. His hometown of LaGrange has made enough money from processing methane gas at its landfill to wipe out local property taxes, he said.
Mark Woodall, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, said removal of the yard trimmings ban "would be the greatest setback to recycling and waste reduction we've ever had."
The DCA calculates that could mean an annual increase in landfill waste of 1.5 million tons.
Landfill companies made a similar push at the Legislature in 2006, but their argument then was that they could have fewer trucks on the road if they didn't have to collect yard waste separately, Woodall said. "Now they're claiming they are doing it for green energy, which is really a green scam."
Most of Georgia's yard waste currently is recycled, turned into compost or buried, though in what proportions that happens, both sides concede there's no firm data.
Nix said he's convinced most yard waste is being buried and not reused. "We clearly believe and most people who look at it believe there's an excellent purpose in having it go to alternative energy," he said.
Woodall said: "Follow the money."
If all or a major share of the yard trimmings were shipped to landfills, the potential profits -- with tipping or dumping fees averaging $35 a ton -- could be in the millions, Woodall said.
He said, if passed, the bill could put out of business the companies that now take in yard waste, as well as hurt businesses that depend on the recycled product. It also could encourage haulers from other states to come to Georgia, since the sorting of yard waste won't be required at the 10 landfills.
In a letter being circulated at the state Capitol, Alan Farmer, Region IV director for the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote that his agency, as a matter of policy, supports the preservation of Georgia's yard waste ban.
“Since Georgia adopted the landfill ban in 1996, over 13 percent of municipal solid waste has been diverted away from landfills and is being used as a feedstock for other industries,” he wrote. “This has extended the life of landfills in Georgia, thereby reducing the costs of siting, zoning, building and maintaining new landfills in the state.”
James Swope, the city of Atlanta's solid waste administrator, sees several potential problems with the bill, including that it does not specify that the yard waste has to be used for energy and is unclear on whether it also removes the ban on collections of yard waste separately at the curb.
"I don't know of any beneficial aspect of this," Swope said.
Ken Haldin, director of communications for Waste Management, said his company owns four of the 10 landfills that would be eligible to take in yard trimmings and be part of what is a growing trend in alternative energy. "Where it is appropriate to capture the gas [produced at landfills] and convert it into energy, that's a positive option," he said.
Pro vs. con: Yard waste in landfills
Rep. Randy Nix (R-LaGrange): "We clearly believe and most people who look at it believe there's an excellent purpose in having it go to alternative energy."
The Sierra Club's Mark Woodall: "This would be the greatest setback to recycling and waste reduction we've ever had."
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