Lack of Incentive

Mississippi provides an opportunity to study why the recycling rate is low and landfilling is popular, particularly among states in the Deep South and the Great Plains.

Per-person municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal and generation are much higher in Mississippi than the national averages, as the process of solid waste planning in the state is entirely geared toward landfilling material. Some communities managed to set up drop-off and recycling programs, but the vast majority has so far ignored the state goal of reaching a 25 percent recycling rate by 1996.

MAKING PLANS

The Mississippi Legislature passed the Non-hazardous Solid Waste Planning Act in 1991 to protect the health, safety and welfare of residents from the adverse environmental impacts of waste generation and land pollution. The act mandated the preparation and adoption of solid waste management plans for 82 counties and 296 municipalities in the state and their submittal to the Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality for approval. With the exceptions of the cities of Jackson and Canton, all municipalities in the state have joined their respective counties to develop and implement plans. Twenty counties and their municipalities have formed four regional solid waste authorities, each consisting of from three to seven counties: Northeast (three counties), Three Rivers (six counties), Golden Triangle (seven counties) and Pine Belt (four counties). The South Central Regional Solid Waste Authority consists of Simpson County and two of its municipalities. In 2006, the Mississippi Legislature formed Harrison County Utility Authority on the Gulf Coast to consolidate services related to solid waste collection and disposal, water supply, wastewater treatment and stormwater management in several cities. Mississippi law allows municipalities to enjoy greater roles in the management of solid waste when they are part of a statutory authority. However, the vast majority of Mississippi counties, 61 to be exact, have prepared their own solid waste plans in conjunction with municipalities within their jurisdictions and without forming any authorities.

Mississippi also requires public participation as a critical component of solid waste planning, as local governments must form a steering committee to guide plan preparation and conduct public hearings for citizen input. Currently most counties and municipalities in the state have approved plans which they must update every five years, if not more frequently.

PILING ON

In 2008, 192 operating landfills in the Magnolia State received about 6.6 million tons of in-state solid waste. According to the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response of U.S. EPA, in 2008 approximately 304 million Americans were responsible for disposing of 135 million tons of MSW in landfills. The national figure for MSW combustion with energy recovery is about 32 million tons, but Mississippi does not have an incinerator for burning trash. An average Mississippian disposed of more than 4.8 pounds of MSW per day, which is almost twice the national landfilling average of about 2.43 pounds per person per day, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). About 2.9 million Mississippians sent about 2.6 million tons of MSW to in-state landfills. An additional 4 million tons of industrial material, rubbish and vegetation was accepted by Mississippi landfills, bringing the average disposal for all types of solid waste to more than 13 pounds per person per day.

Material generated out-of-state accounts for nearly 13 percent of disposal in Mississippi landfills. Out-of-state material accounts for almost 60 percent of disposals in the non-MSW category and includes industrial sludge, ashes, asbestos and similar special wastes. Mississippi landfills accept nearly 20 percent of MSW from nearby states.

Low population density and the overwhelming rural character of the state are among the primary socio-economic forces affecting solid waste management in Mississippi. Relatively inexpensive landfilling is forcing solid waste professionals to choose sanitary landfills as the principal waste management method.

In the 1980s the state housed nearly 100 MSW landfills, with each community having its own dump. In 1984 many unlined landfills were forced to close following the amendment of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the imposition of federal regulations in 1988 for the design and construction of Subtitle D solid waste facilities. MSW landfills in Mississippi are now fewer in number but bigger and cheaper than in most states,. The state is home to only 18 MSW landfills, but as many as 149 sites, or 78 percent of all landfills, were exclusively constructed for receiving industrial and institutional material.

MISSING COMPONENT

Almost 20 years of solid waste planning in Mississippi managed to ensure adequate disposal facilities but failed to accommodate sufficient waste reduction and recycling activities. Although the state set a recycling goal of 25 percent by 1996 for counties and municipalities, few communities established programs for residential recycling. There is no lack of private sector recycling of scrap metals, and some recyclers are even paying for old corrugated containers, office and computer paper and aluminum cans that fetch much higher values than some items that are typically collected through drop-off and curbside recycling programs. A few communities have set up collection programs for discarded white goods, used electronics, leftover antifreeze, unwanted tires and other hard-to-dispose household rejects. These services are essential, as most refuse haulers usually do not provide services for picking up such items, but collections by local government sponsored programs are hardly putting a dent on the rising landfill volume in the state.

The state lacks community furnished drop-off and curbside recycling. Only about 31 local governments, or a little more than 10 percent of the state’s 296 municipalities, have established approximately 50 drop-off sites for recyclables.

Participation in drop-off recycling varies anywhere from between 10 percent to 25 percent of households. Typical household participation in curbside recycling is greater than 50 percent.

A majority of curbside recycling in Mississippi is clustered along the Gulf Coast and the central and northern metropolitan parts of the state, leaving large holes in the Mississippi Delta and in many other rural, impoverished sections of the state. A total of 21 curbside recycling programs have been identified. Most cities along the Gulf Coast have set up curbside programs. Only two county-wide curbside recycling programs are available for the unincorporated areas in Jackson and Harrison counties. Other Mississippi communities that have jumped on the bandwagon of curbside recycling are Olive Branch, Southaven, Tupelo, Oxford, Starkville, Jackson, Clinton, Ridgeland, Madison, Meridian and Quitman. The city of Hernando is currently in the process of considering offering curbside recycling for a $3 monthly subscription.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is not statutorily required to develop a state solid waste plan entailing guidelines for its local governments to increase their waste reduction efforts. Other states, however, have done so. For instance, the Ohio General Assembly has mandated the creation and implementation of a state solid waste plan laying out the framework for waste minimization activities.

The author is an assistant professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. He can be contacted at moe.n.chowdhury@jsums.edu.

Source: Solid Waste Policy, Planning and Grants Branch, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.