01/03/2026
Among thousands of comments on a recent article about the MegaDumps in our region the question, Where should the trash go?", came up. The following is an attempt to begin to answer that question.
The question "Where should the trash go?" is a fair one—it's often used to challenge critics of local landfills like Woodland Meadows (Waste Management's RDF in Van Buren Township) or Wayne Disposal by implying there's no better option. But the reality is that landfills should be the last resort, not the default. Michigan (via EGLE) and the US EPA promote a clear sustainable materials management hierarchy that prioritizes preventing waste and recovering value from materials over burying them.
Here's a standard hierarchy (top to bottom, best to worst environmental/economic impact):
Source Reduction (prevent waste from being created in the first place)
Buy less, choose products with minimal packaging, repair items, shift to reusable goods (e.g., cloth bags, refillable bottles). This is the most effective step—less stuff produced means less to manage.
Reuse
Donate usable items (clothes, furniture, electronics), repurpose containers, or participate in buy-nothing groups/Freecycle networks. Many communities have strong reuse programs to keep materials circulating.
Recycling & Composting (divert materials for new uses)
Recycling: Curbside programs handle paper, plastics, metals, glass. Michigan's rate is low (~18-25% statewide/Wayne County), far below the national average (~32%), partly because cheap landfills discourage diversion. Boosting this could recover millions in value annually.
Composting/Organics Diversion: Food scraps and yard waste make up ~35% of Michigan's waste stream. Home composting, community programs, or anaerobic digestion turn them into soil amendments instead of methane-emitting landfill piles. Yard waste is already banned from landfills in many cases.
Energy Recovery (e.g., waste-to-energy incineration or landfill gas capture)
Burn non-recyclable waste to generate electricity/heat, or capture methane from existing landfills. Some Michigan facilities (e.g., in Kent County) do this successfully, powering thousands of homes.
Treatment & Disposal (landfills as the bottom tier)
Only what's left after the above—non-recyclable, non-compostable, non-reusable waste. Modern landfills are engineered with liners, leachate collection, and monitoring to minimize pollution, but they still risk groundwater issues, odors, truck traffic, methane emissions, and long-term land use impacts (especially expansions onto wetlands, as seen in local controversies).
Why This Matters Locally in Van Buren Township
Michigan has plenty of landfill capacity overall (estimated 20+ years statewide), but metro Detroit/Wayne County sites like Woodland Meadows and Wayne Disposal take a disproportionate share—including out-of-state/Canadian waste—because tipping fees are low here.
Expansions (e.g., Woodland Meadows onto wetlands or Wayne Disposal license renewals) face opposition precisely because alternatives exist: stronger recycling/composting mandates, county-level waste utilization goals (pushed in recent Part 115 updates), transfer stations to ship waste elsewhere, or incentives to reduce generation.
Groups like Michigan Against Atomic Waste, local officials (e.g., Rep. Reggie Miller, Supervisor McNamara), and conservationists argue the state should prioritize diversion over more burial, especially for hazardous/radioactive imports.
"It shouldn't go to landfills if we can avoid it—start by reducing what we buy, reuse what we can, recycle/compost aggressively, then use energy recovery. Landfills are only for what's truly leftover."
"Michigan's own policy (EGLE's materials management approach) puts landfills last—focus on the top of the hierarchy to cut reliance on places like Woodland Meadows."
"We already have alternatives: better curbside organics collection, expanded recycling, producer responsibility laws (e.g., for packaging), and regional transfer to underused sites if needed. Burying everything here just because it's cheap isn't sustainable."
(michigan.gov/egle)
