Howland Transfer Station

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.

There is a lot of waste generated in the USA. In 2018, there were 292 million tons of waste generated. Averagely that is 4.9 Lb. of waste per person. The waste from municipalities is recycled the most. The data says that in 2018, there was a recycling rate of 32%. Some of the waste is reprocessed not other means such as bio-chemical management.The largest categories of waste pertain to paper, food plastics, yard trims, and metals. Food, plastics, and paper make are the main resources for energy production from waste.

Each landfill has a different cost to use its services. The price depends on many factors, such as type of waste ( hazardous, construction and demolition waste, municipal solid waste, and inert waste ), location of the landfill, and the individual charges of the landfill. According to statistics, the USA average price per ton is $53.72. The costs tend to be higher in the Pacific area, where they reach an average of $72.02 per ton of waste. The prices are averagely the cheapest in South Central, where they reach $39.66 per ton. From statistics, we see that the highest populated areas, the Pacific and the northeast are the costliest, while the other areas of the USA tend to have cheaper prices per ton.

The first step onto the waste stations is to weigh the incoming garbage trucks. These sites are also open to the public and they help the community. The work of waste sorting stations is very important, and it helps to optimize the process of waste management. Transfer stations pre-compact the waste thus it is easier for the bulldozers to manage the waste at the sanitary landfills.

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.