When torrential rain inundated the state in July, Vermonters needed help clearing thousands of tons of debris from their homes and businesses. “It’s stuff that was good, usable stuff until the flood,” said Josh Kelly, solid waste program manager with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. “It switched from a product, something we wanted to keep — mementos, etc., to a waste, overnight.”
Workers dropped off everything from ruined goods to construction waste at the state’s only operating landfill in Coventry, owned by Casella Waste Systems. That landfill may be running out of room. A recent expansion, which was expected to create capacity for around 20 years, is likely, but not certain, Kelly said, to be its last. So, has the seemingly monumental amount of flood debris impacted the landfill’s capacity, or its lifespan?
So far, officials say it hasn’t. In fact, the amount of waste the landfill accepted this summer doesn’t appear to be very different, at first glance, from last summer. In July 2022, Vermonters sent around 30,000 tons of waste to Coventry. In August 2022, the landfill accepted around 50,000 tons, Kelly said — higher than normal, but not exceptional.