Lane County residents might take some relief in knowing that the Short Mountain Landfill likely won’t reach capacity until well into the next century, but how many years it really takes to fill up depends on how much trash goes in it each year. “We’re pretty fortunate here in Lane County to have quite a bit of landfill capacity,” said Dan Hurley, director of Lane County Public Works. “We have about 140 years of life left in our landfill. So, while we are experiencing higher volumes of waste, it’s not an immediate impact for us here.”
The Short Mountain Landfill has been taking in trash since 1976 — for 42 years — and is only 22.7 percent full, Hurley said. The landfill has a capacity of 42.8 million cubic yards of waste, and so far it holds 12.5 million cubic yards. In contrast, other counties around the state have only decades or even years until their landfills are full. Hurley said Douglas County’s landfill, for example, will be completely full in about 15 years.
The rules for curbside recycling in the cities changed earlier this year, causing more plastics to probably end up in the Short Mountain Landfill. And the per-year amount has been rising in recent years, Hurley said, even before recycling rules changed due to global market shifts. The rule changes have left milk jugs and drink containers as the few plastics fit for curbside recycling (no yogurt containers, butter tubs or shampoo bottles). The recent rise in waste headed to Short Mountain, Hurley said, is a side-effect of a healthy economy.
“As people have more disposable income, they buy more, they do remodels on their house and all those things generate more waste,” Hurley said. “So we’ve seen quite a bit of waste tonnage increase over the past few years anyway.”
Read the full story at https://www.registerguard.com/news/20180907/eugene-springfields-landfill-has-lots-of-life-left-even-with-recycling-changes.