Too Much Recycling? Free Market Gov’s’ Empty Landfills Worry Wall St.

EARLIER: Moody’s Investors Service has threatened to downgrade the Delaware Solid Waste Authority, currently rated A2, because the state isn’t dumping nearly as much lucrative trash for local towns in its Cherry Island Landfill and other waste sites as it used to. The state dumps have suffered “substantial declines in tonnage since 2007, from over one million tons, to 675,000 tons in fiscal year ending June 30, 2012,” writes Moody’s in a new report. “The authority expects tonnage to stabilize in the 600,000 to 650,000 tons range in the near term. “A large part of the decline since 2010 is due to increased recycling efforts through state bill that prevented the authority’s direct participation. “Declines have also come in general waste reduction efforts by households.” If Delawareans don’t start throwing out more garbage, DSWA has the power…

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Why Compost When I Can Landfill It?

Obviously I'm joking about the title, but people often forget that one of the main benefits of composting relates to greenhouse gas reduction.  How?  You may have wondered about this before...I know I did.  Why would throwing food scraps in my backyard pile be any different than in a landfill? It all started today when I was reading a document about waste treatment methods (my other favorite topic) and I noticed a parallel with composting.  It was comparing the global warming potential of carbon dioxide alongside methane. When waste is incinerated, it creates carbon dioxide amongst many other toxins that are conveniently ignored, although they include lead, mercury, dioxin, furans, and hydrochloric acid amongst others.  Carbon dioxide (CO2) has a global warming potential of 1.0. On the other hand, landfilling…

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