Election Topic - the Economics of a Landfill, the Importance of Avoiding Conflict of Interest, and Who's Garbage is That, Anyway?
The financial stakes for the planned closure of Grand Central Sanitary Landfill as it consumes the last available portion of space that was carefully planned and zoned for solid waste disposal are huge. Let's look at 2009, the latest year for which statistics are publicly available for the amount of waste generated by Northampton County, disposed of in the landfill. The Northampton County Municipal Waste Management Plan 2010-2020 shows that in 2009, 43,046 tons of municipal solid waste generated in the county were disposed of at GCSL. The Plan also shows that tipping fees received by GCSL were $105 per ton. For that year, Plainfield Township records reflect that 371,290 tons of solid waste were disposed of in the landfill. Since the landfill operates roughly 5-1/2 days a week, this works out to 1298 tons per day. At $105 per ton, the 2009 average daily income for an operating day is $136,290, and the income for 2009 is $38,985,450. It should be noted that in 2009 a decline in w