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Another funding proposal requests an increase, by appro- WHAT HAPPENS TO TRASH IN THE FUTURE? priation,of funds available to the Council to assist waste • reuse and recovery, public education,technical assistance Land disposal of trash in the Twin Cities Area will be cut and recycling market development projects. back drastically to a minimal level over the next few years if the Metropolitan Council's recommendations on solid The Council is to receive a portion of the money collected waste are taken up by the Minnesota Legislature. And land- through a landfill surcharge imposed by the legislature in fills operating after 1990 would pose a smaller threat to the 1984 for this purpose, but much of that amount-won't be environment than those that now worry policy makers. available until 1986—and these projects are needed now. The funds appropriated to the Council to help get them off There is evidence that 13 of the region's 15 operating or the ground would be repaid as surcharge monies accumulate. closed landfills are contaminating the groundwater under- neath them.The eight landfills currently operating in the area accept about 5,400 tons of trash daily,and will be full A New Plan for Managing the Region's Trash by the early 1990s if this level of dumping continues. Eventually most of the 18 potential landfill sites identified The Council is putting together a plan for solid waste by the seven counties and approved by the Council would management in the region that reflects its recommendations be needed—and many of these are now productive farmland. to the legislature. The new plan,which replaces one approved in 1981,will articulate the policies guiding The Metropolitan Council is asking the legislature to set up disposal of trash generated by businesses and homes in the a system that would reduce both the number of landfills region that will phase out burial of unprocessed solid waste and the amount of trash sent to them by at least three after 1990.The plan will explain how everything but quarters.While it still isn't technically possible to eliminate "residuals"—Iike the ash remaining after waste is burned— landfills altogether,the Council proposes to reserve land is to be kept out of the ground,where 90 percent of the disposal space for only those waste materials that can't be region's trash now ends up. reused,and stop burying mixed,unprocessed solid waste. Current law forbids the Council to authorize the expansion This means that only "residuals"—the materials remaining of landfills or development of new sites beyond what is after recovery and recycling of trash—would be accepted at necessary after all other feasible options have been pursued. the landfills of the 1990s. Because these contain few or no The Council must set the standards for counties to maxi- organic substances,-the range of potential contaminants mize efforts to keep trash out of landfills,through waste would be reduced.And new or expanded landfills would be reduction,recycling and incineration. The purpose of the technically superior to the current generation of landfills, new solid waste management policy plan is to introduce with liners between the fill and the earth and systems to • these standards and suggest strategies cities, counties, collect liquid that seeps down through the landfill. businesses and the public may use to meet them. The improved quality of the waste received and of their One of the policies in the plan supports the Council goal of design would make these fewer landfills better neighbors separation of compostable yard wastes and recyclables from to other types of land and increase the number of options other trash by 1988. It calls for the establishment of a for their use after they are full. network of integrated processing and recycling services,to make separation convenient and collection dependable for The Council's recommendations to the legislature call for area homes and businesses. measures to build a region-wide system of resource recovery facilities to replace landfills.Specific deadlines,along with The plan will discuss alternatives to landfills ranging from expanded financing for facilities,are the spurs for develop- 'low-tech' home-based activities to large-scale trash inciner- ment of this system. ation plants,and explain how these techniques can work side by side.A mixture of methods is the best approach to 1990 is the most important deadline proposed to accelerate recovering resources from the different kinds of wastes that landfill abatement efforts.This is the target date for a now travel together to landfills. prohibition on the burial of unprocessed waste in landfills. In the intervening years,the seven metropolitan counties Some unusable materials remain to be disposed of even must step up their efforts to plan and develop resource after this variety of recovery methods has been exhausted, recovery facilities,such as garbage-burning plants. but the volume of these is only a fraction of that now being buried.These 'residuals'will probably still go to landfills, Large-scale energy recovery and co-composting plants will and in the future it will be up to the Council to decide get into operation more quickly and easily if the counties when the practice of land disposal is necessary and to see cooperate with each other to meet this deadline,sharing that this"last resort" is not abused. costs and the supply of waste needed to keep facilities running smoothly. Ramsey and Washington Counties,for The solid waste management policy plan is now being example,are already working together to plan a major reviewed by the Council and its committees,and the waste processing plant.Transfer stations to relay trash to Council plans to complete a public hearing draft in late processing plants could be placed to serve two or more December. A public hearing will be held 30 days later, counties. and comments on the plan will be heard then.The Council • will probably adopt the new plan in February. The Council is proposing an intermediary deadline of Jan. 1, 1988,by which metropolitan counties and cities Persons who have comments or questions about the plan would be expected to should call Paul Smith,Council environmental planner,at ass ordinances e se that recyc a les and compostable and wastes be separated from 291-6408. other tras .T is would give area cities and counties three 2