Rolling with Regs: Landfill Morphs to Transfer Station

Whitman County landfill, five miles northwest of Pullman (WA) on Landfill Road turned transfer station in July 1993 and has since been shipping most of its waste to sites across the country.

It was then that new regulations made it hard for the landfill—as well as other small landfills—to continue operating as previously.

The landfill takes in roughly 23,000 tons of garbage a year, but only the construction waste—about 2000 tons—gets buried at the site. And not all of that waste is buried; some is sold as used building supplies.

Commenting on the remaining waste, Tim Davis, waste manager at the landfill, said, "It is more cost effective for us to ship our waste than to bury it here."

The landfill takes care of waste ranging from refrigerators to egg shells.

Bundles of crushed appliances ship to Utah.

Regular household waste travels 230 miles to a regional landfill that Waste Management operates in Arlington, OR.

Household hazardous waste—such as paint, household pesticides and used motor oil—is collected in 55-gal drums for shipment to Spokane and disposal.

The landfill accepts newsprint, all three colors of glass, cardboard, milk jugs, aluminum and tin cans. They are collected and sorted until enough is accumulated for shipping to Spokane.

"We usually get enough cardboard to make a shipment about once every other week," Davis said.

The previous case study was adapted from a feature written by Elena Hinojosa for the Sept. 21 edition of Washington's Moscow-Pullman Daily News.