As locals dump more and more trash, Springfield's landfill is filling up faster

• The Springfield Noble Hill Sanitary Landfill sees anywhere between 1,000 to 1,200 tons of waste per day.
• Just four years ago, the regional landfill's projected life expectancy was a century. That timeline has been reduced to 75 years.
• In the state of Missouri, there are 17 landfills. Ten are projected to be filled to capacity within the next two decades, according to estimates from DNR.

Scavenging gulls soaring above mountains of trash peaks and the constant thrum of machinery compressing garbage are among the first things noticed on a visit to the Springfield landfill. What's not so obvious, city officials say, is that time is quickly running out for the dump.

The Springfield Noble Hill Sanitary Landfill, at 3545 W. Farm Rd. 34 in Willard, accepts anywhere between 1,000 to 1,200 tons of waste per day. That daily total is more than double what was being dumped each day less than a decade ago, said Laurie Davis, the education outreach coordinator for the city's Department of Environmental Services.

"When I started here six years ago, our average daily tonnage was 650 tons, and I was freaking out at that because that's a lot of trash," Davis said, before before double-checking her math with co-workers. "Now, we've doubled that."

Just four years ago, when an average of 750-800 tons was being dumped each day, the regional landfill was projected to last another century. That timeline has been reduced to 75 years, or less.

"Currently, our best projections are somewhere between 50 to 75 years," Davis said. "It's definitely the time to have a conversation about how do we make this resource last as long as possible. Somewhere along the line, 50 to 75 years from now, somebody in our community is going to inherit a community that has no access to a landfill."

Technology may be developed in that time to help, but Davis said you can't wait "for technology to catch up with what we do with our trash."

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'It's a problem nobody is talking about'

There are 17 landfills in the state of Missouri. Ten are projected to be filled to capacity within the next two decades, according to estimates from DNR. The top three to close in the next decade include the city of Washington's landfill, with an estimated 4.91 years left; Columbia's landfill, with 7.32 years left; and Jefferson City's, expected to be full in 8.07 years.

"It's a problem nobody is talking about," Davis said. "Seventy-five years sounds like a long time, but it is like a blink of an eye. The older I get, the faster it goes."

Remaining Airspace in Missouri Sanitary Landfills Presentation by MoDNR

The reality is that the landfill is not an "unlimited resource," Davis said.

"So often, our trash is out of sight, out of mind," she added. "There's no such thing as throwing something away. Away is here, and every piece adds up."

Davis said the disposable nature of many products adds to the growing mounds of trash.

"We have become such a throwaway society," Davis said.

Many people don't repair their things anymore. If an item breaks, it gets tossed. And the reliance on convenience and affordability — like when purchasing bottled water or individually packaged applesauce rather than one large container — is feeding into the problem.

'Space is the No. 1 commodity' at the Springfield landfill

The city of Springfield purchased the site in 1975. The regulations in place now were not active then, and despite the property extending across 1,200 acres total, only 213 is allotted for potential waste use. (In 2019, DNR allowed an expansion, so the site went from 180 acres to 213.) With "impermeable" rock formations underground, the land is mostly Cotter Dolomite and shale, Davis added.

Pointing to the embankment surrounding three-quarters of the current waste spot, Davis told the News-Leader the "cell" is part of one of the small sections the Environmental Protection Agency and Missouri Department of Natural Resources approved for a landfill.

It's a multi-year process to get through the numerous environmental impact studies in order to begin. Geologists have to do core samples to test the area to ensure seepage won't get into the groundwater supply.

"Space is the No. 1 commodity up here, so we have to be very efficient with our space," Davis said.

Each cell has to go through extensive planning and design. Lining systems capture leakage before it enters the groundwater supply. Gas wells dot the landscape to capture potent greenhouse gas, like methane, to either be burned off or converted into energy. Wire fencing surrounds the cell to try to keep trash from blowing away.

"We get ready to construct a new landfill cell, they tell us what the depth will be, what the height as we start filling it can be (and) what the width of it will be," Davis said about the different government agencies overseeing regulations.

A compactor equipped with a GPS unit passes over sections of trash at least four times before more waste is dumped on top. A tipper hoists trailers carting nearly 33 tons of trash upwards as the load falls onto existing piles and garbage gulls swarm nearby. Every night, giant tarps cover the heaps of refuse to keep animals from further scavenging and dragging it away. Davis said the landfill locals include deer, fox, bobcats, snakes, turtles and more.

According to Davis, the landfill sees as many as seven trailers carrying double-digit tonnage a day. Many of the semi-trucks hauling trash-filled trailers are coming in from transfer stations around the area, as the nearest other landfill is Lamar's Republic Services Prairie View Regional Waste Landfill, about an hour away from Springfield.

"We're pulling from everywhere, and the Department of Natural Resources is not wild about permitting more land to be used for this," Davis said, indicating to multiple vehicles dumping waste.

A cell is typically running three to four years before it fills to capacity. With a constant rotation, there's never a gap between one cell filling and another being ready to start.

"We'll just keep moving around and then circle back around again for the purpose of maximizing space," Davis said.

We won't be able to recycle our way out

Recycling alone won't solve the trash problems, either, Davis said.

"We won't be able to recycle our way out of it because there's too much stuff and the quality of our recycling material isn't in good enough shape for it to be made into something new," she said, speaking of the overall situation, not just in Springfield. "We're doing a terrible job at recycling. For as long as it's been around, we should be doing better."

Consumers could start demanding that producers manufacture materials that is easier to recycle or make items out of material that is more easily compostable, Davis said.

"Plastic waste is probably about 13% of what's out there, and plastic just doesn't break down the same way other materials do," Davis said. "It takes forever because it's chemically produced. It photodegrades rather than biodegrades, so it just breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces."

Scientists are finding evidence of microplastics in every part of our environment, including in people's bodies. Previous research has found humans inhale and ingest enough microscopic pieces of plastic to create a credit card each week. But until March 2022, scientists didn't know whether those particles were entering the bloodstream, according to USA Today reporting.

More:With tours and education, city aims to promote recycling, extend life of landfill

A federal law forbids harvesting materials once they're placed in a landfill, even if they're recyclable. Davis said on a national scale, 70% of what ends up in a landfill could have been recycled.

"How do we keep it from going there in the first place or, once it's there, how do we develop a system for harvesting the materials and then repurposing them?" Davis asked.

These hard conversations are important to have. If they don't take place, Davis said our world will resemble that of the Pixar film, "Wall-E," which focused on a little robot stuck on earth and cleaning up trash.

"There's no planet B," Davis said. "We don't get another planet, so let's do better at taking care of this one that we've got for sure."

She implores people to think through a series of questions before they throw something away:

Can the item be repurposed instead? Is there a way to reuse it? Can it be donated? Can it have a second life?

A resource to remember and reference, she said, is Environmental Services' Waste Wizard, which lets users type in the name of a waste item and get instructions about how best to recycle or dispose of it.

What's the No. 1 item in the landfill?

While countries in Europe have started embracing zero waste movements, Davis doesn't think we will be able to implement that kind of policy in the United States.

"I don't think you could ever get to zero waste because there's always going to be waste of some sort," Davis said.

Among the waste from construction sites, businesses and homes, one thing drives Davis the craziest. It's paper, which has a high decomposition rate, yet represents about 26% of the material in the landfill. Once dumped and a compactor begins compressing the trash, oxygen is taken out in what's called an anaerobic environment, which drastically reduces the ability to decompose.

"Paper, which, theoretically, laying out here should decompose in a few weeks, it's gonna sit there for 50 years," Davis said.

Sara Karnes is an Outdoors Reporter with the Springfield News-Leader. Follow along with her adventures on Twitter and Instagram @Sara_Karnes. Got a story to tell? Email her at skarnes@springfi.gannett.com.