where it goes when you dispose

Welcome to the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority. The Where it Goes When You Dispose Tour™ is brought to you by the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council.

During this tour, you will have the opportunity to visit five solid waste management facilities: a transfer station, a household hazardous waste facilitiy, an energy recovery or combustion facility, a recycling center and a landfill. You may visit them independently, or you may follow the suggested tour route. After learning about these integrated solid waste management systems during the tour, test your knowledge by taking the quiz. By providing the correct solutions to all the questions, you can receive your very own personalized certificate of achievement!

On the tour, your first stop is the transfer station. However before you begin, Jim Warner, the Authority's executive director, would like to give you some background on the facility.

Let's go talk with Jim

Start

Welcome to the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority. The tour you are about to begin starts with our transfer station that implements one part of an integrated solid waste management system. In fact, the Authority's integrated solid waste management system is typical of many community systems.

Many people don't think twice about the waste they generate after throwing it away or placing it at the curb for collection. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, however, waste handling has been a much-studied topic for solid waste management officials who have worked to implement the most up-to-date technology for integrated waste management.

In the 1980s, waste handling became more sophisticated as the amount of trash rapidly increased.The Authority recognized the need for an updated, comprehensive municipal solid waste (MSW) management plan to address the disposal needs of the entire county that was based on local conditions. After several years of research by our county solid waste advisory committee, Lancaster County adopted a plan in 1986 mandating a new landfill, a energy recovery facility, and recycling and waste reduction strategies.

The plan was updated in 1990 to incorporate mandatory recycling provisions and the separation of household hazardous waste.

We're proud of our system. Each year, Lancaster County produces more than 400,000 tons of waste and recyclables. This amount of garbage disposed entirely in a landfill would consume about 1 million cubic yards of space. Because of our integrated approach using energy recovery and recycling, we are able to reduce the amount of space consumed in our landfill by 84 percent.

We think that our integrated waste management system provides us the flexibility to maximize the inherent material and energy resources in waste materials while minimizing overall impact on the environment. After taking our tour, we believe that you will too.

Learn about the role of the transfer station in an integrated solid waste management system.