Buncombe County Landfill

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Opening Times

  • Monday 8am-4:30pm *loads requiring more than 30 minutes to unload must be in the landfill by 4pm
  • Tuesday 8am-4:30pm
  • Wednesday 8am-4:30pm
  • Thursday 8am-4:30pm
  • Friday 8am-4:30pm
  • Saturday 8am-12:30pm
  • Sunday closed

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The Buncombe County Landfill is located on 81 Panther Branch Road, Off SR 251, Alexander, NC 28701. This landfill is opened on the following hours:

  • Monday: 8am-4:30pm
  • Tuesday: 8am-4:30pm
  • Wednesday: 8am-4:30pm
  • Thursday: 8am-4:30pm
  • Friday: 8am-4:30pm
  • Saturday: 8am-12:30pm
  • Sunday: closed

The landfill is closed on all US federal holidays. The dumps on the landfill are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the applicable state laws.

The BUNCOMBE COUNTY RECYCLES North Carolina buries trash and garbage below secured and stratified layers of dirt and isolating material. The transfer station accepts tire, solid waste, hazardous waste, and inert material waste. For any other type of waste that you are not SURE ABOUT, you can reach them out at (828) 250-5460.

The facility accepts miscellaneous items such as oil filters, lead-acid batteries, newspapers, magazines, office paper, mixed paper, corrugated cardboard, and motor oils. Cooking oil disposal is available. For automotive tires, the first 10 are free, with each additional tire incurring a fee. Tires on rims, including the initial 10, carry a fee each. Farm animals and leaves have specific disposal guidelines, and wood pallets are accepted.

You can reach the Buncombe County Landfill hours about their opening hours to the public and what is the visitor policy. They would gladly answer your questions.

Items such as aluminum foil, dishes, cookware, Styrofoam, plastic wrap, paper towels, tissues, window or mirror glass, black microwavable trays, light bulbs, and plastic bags are not recyclable at this facility.

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Buncombe County Recycling Guide

Popular questions at Buncombe County recycling facility

What happens at a landfill?

A landfill has very detailed business operations. The waste arrives at the facility in garbage trucks on a section called the Cell. The cell is made of an isolated layer, that prevents any waste or liquids from leaking. In the cell, the waste is sorted out. This unit is enclosed, as the sun and the atmospheric conditions can interact with the waste. Afterward, the garbage is compressed in the smallest volume possible. The cell will accept new waste until it is full. When it reaches, it is further reinforced on top with various materials and dirt. The idea is that the area on top of the cell is reused and to support vegetation.

The important part of this process is the base of the cell. It must prevent liquids and other pollutants from reaching the soil. For this reason, the cell is isolated below with layers of plastic and clay, to create a strong isolation system.

Regarding liquids, they are collected onto a unit called the sump. In this unit, the liquids are processed, and when they are cleaned on pollutants, they are reintroduced onto the environment. Each landfill has groundwater monitoring, which means they collect the quality of groundwater before it reaches the landfill and afterward it exits the landfill. Regarding gasses generated by the waste, they are collected via a special system that ends up reusing the methane generated and the gases to produce energy.

When a landfill reaches the point that all the cells are full, then the landfill stops operations. This doesn’t mean that the owners of the landfill have no responsibilities. They must be monitored for 30 years after closure, and that means assuring the quality of groundwater and preventing leakage to the soil of any type of waste.

What is a transfer station?

When waste arrives in a landfill it needs to be sorted out first. Therefore, we have waste sorting stations. These are specialized for municipal waste and not for other types of landfills. Garbage trucks dump their municipal waste. Then the waste is separated into recyclable waste and non-recyclable materials. The non-recyclable garbage is then separated into hazardous waste, energy recyclable waste, landfill waste, or incinerator waste. Afterward that it has been sorted out, it is then loaded onto garbage trucks, and this deposits the waste onto their designated places.

What is a secure chemical landfill?

Chemical landfills are a variation of sanitary landfills. Chemical landfills are made to secure and hazardous waste. This type of landfill is made on top of a nonporous bedrock. The idea is to create a place that is specialized to reduce the likelihood of hazardous waste reaching the environment. This type of landfill has a pit with a heavily protected bottom that does not allow hazardous materials to reach the soil. These landfills are operated by specialized personnel, and they have strong monitoring systems. To deposit materials in a chemical landfill, it is mandatory to research the local applicable laws and any federal laws that pertain to the type of waste that you intend to dispose of.

What does a landfill look like?

A landfill is a location that manages our waste. In some landfills the garbage is left in piles, in some the garbage is incinerated and, in some others, the waste is decomposed onto other chemical structures and processed. In some landfills, the waste is buried.

Landfills are in specific areas, and they are away from cities and counties as there are gases that leak from the decomposition of the waste. There are various types of landfills. Some are used for municipal waste, some are used for sorting of the waste, some serve as transfer stations, and some are specialized only for recycling. Each landfill has its acceptance conditions, which means only a specific type of waste can be accepted.

When a load of waste is accepted, the garbage trucks go to the dumping point and offload the materials. During the processing of the waste, the main ideas are to confine the waste in the smallest space possible and to reduce the volume of the waste by compacting it. The garbage trucks are weighed when they enter and exit the landfill. The difference is the tons of garbage deposited and that affects the cost to use the landfill. Each landfill has its prices per ton depending on the type of waste that is deposited.

How is a landfill different from a dump?

There is one detail to clear out. Landfills and dumps sound the same but are not. A landfill is engineered to maximally reduce the effect on the environment of the waste. The advantages of landfills over dumps are that landfills are managed with more care and landfills can even recycle the waste to produce other compounds or to even produce energy. Dumps are almost nonexistent today as they do not manage the waste and just leave things in the open.



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