Four landfills in the Twin Cities’ southern suburbs could be expanded to take millions more tons of trash in the coming years as metro-area residents continue to produce a deluge of garbage.The expansions, recommended by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) this summer, would allow four landfills in Burnsville, Inver Grove Heights and Shakopee to grow their municipal solid waste capacity by a combined 5.6 million tons over the next seven years.
“We generate roughly one ton [of garbage] per household, per year,” said Peder Sandhei, the agency’s principal planner. “When you add up the 3.5 million people in the metro area, that’s a lot of waste.” But some residents living near the landfills and at least one neighboring city are balking at the plans. Dozens of people shared comments at a public meeting or via e-mail, voicing worries about water pollution and environmental justice issues, among other things.
The MPCA has long urged Minnesotans to recycle more and reduce waste, designating landfills as the least desirable way to get rid of trash. But officials now say they have little choice but to pursue more capacity. John Linc Stine, MPCA commissioner from 2012 to 2019, said the expansion plans should be a “wake-up call” that the Twin Cities is still producing far too much garbage. “We’re not anywhere close to the day when we don’t need landfills,” said Stine, executive director of the nonprofit Freshwater Society.
Still, he said residents should ask questions about the expansions. “I think people are right to be concerned,” he said. “There is no such thing as a leakproof landfill.”