State Legislatures Magazine: December 2002
Editor's Note: This article appeared in the December 2002 issue of NCSL's magazine, State Legislatures. To order copies or to subscribe, contact the marketing department at (303) 364-7700.
On First Reading
There's A Gold Mine In the Garbage
Pennsylvania has found a booming business in a commodity states thumb their noses at-taking in other people's trash.
About 27 million tons of solid waste is disposed of in Pennsylvania annually, about half of which comes from out of state. The Keystone State receives more out-of-state waste than any other because it is a Northeast crossroads state, and its neighbors, New York and New Jersey, are the largest exporters of waste.
The industry generated between $1.9 billion and $2.4 billion in revenues in 2000, accounted for 19,000 jobs and pumped more than $100 million in "host fees" into municipal and county governments, according to a Pennsylvania Waste Industry Association study.
In the past, revenue from solid waste has generated more than $60 million a year for municipal recycling programs and state environmental grants. That amount is expected to be in excess of $160 million annually since Pennsylvania raised its tipping tax by $4 per ton.
Every state except Hawaii exports or imports solid waste. While out-of-state waste is a political concern for legislators, governors and environmentalists, rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court say it is a commodity of interstate commerce. As such, it cannot be banned by states or local governments.
Pennsylvania gave out permits from 1995 to 2000 to expand landfills, increasing disposal capacity from 146 million to 287 million tons. That expansion gave the state enough room to handle its own and accept imported waste.
Out-of-state trucks carried nearly 10 million tons of municipal waste into the state in 2000, along with 2.5 million tons of construction debris, sludge and incinerator ash-enough to fill 9,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Pennsylvania has excellent highway access from New Jersey and New York. New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the country, has expensive land, making it less financially feasible to operate a landfill. New York's regulatory and political climate make it difficult to open a landfill.
Whether Pennsylvania will continue to be a net importer of solid waste is a question that revolves around capacity. The state has less than 6.3 years of available disposal capacity statewide, as of Jan. 1, and less than two years in its eastern half, according to the Pennsylvania Waste Industries Association. Before the end of 2003, the association says, the state will be unable to meet the current disposal demand.
©2002, National Conference of State Legislatures. All rights reserved.
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