South Wake (Holly Springs) Landfill Tour on Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Our FIRST Lego League team took a tour of the South Wake Landfill.  I wanted to share some facts we learned on the tour along with some pictures.

Facts

• The South Wake Landfill is about 700 acres big.
• There are 11 convenience centers (offsite locations where citizens can dump trash) in Wake County.  We have one of these near our school on Old Stage Road.
• The recycling center takes large items (e.g., appliances, large plastic toys) along with hazardous items like batteries, engine oil, and paint plus cooking oil.
• Global Electronic Processing in Durham handles the recycling of electronics.
• 90% of the items collected are recycled.
• There are many items that could be recycled that end up in the landfill instead.
• The recycling center is open Monday - Saturday 8AM-4PM.
• The South Wake Landfill is made up of an older landfill site that was opened in the late 70s and a new landfill site opened in 2008.  
• The current landfill is designed to last 25 years but may last as long as 35-40 years.
• The new landfill is composed of 5 cells.  Cell 1 just closed.  They are putting garbage in cell 2 now.
• By law, water around a landfill must be monitored for 30 years after it closes (plus while it is open).  Water is still be monitored in the old landfill site.
• 150 garbage trucks bring trash to the landfill each day.
• That amounts to 16000 tons of garbage a day.
• Trucks pay $32 per ton.
• Some garbage is brought in from transfer stations around the county.  Those tractor trailers have a walking floor to empty garbage in under 40 minutes.
• Gulls (birds) from the Great Lakes migrate here in the winter. 
• Eagles feast on the gulls.
• The Audobon Society comes on site for the Great Backyard Bird Count each year to count the number and types of birds at the landfill.
• The trash is covered at night by a tarp-like plastic and a poly shell clay spray.  This keeps trash from flying out of the site and from animals dragging it off.
• Terex 8240 bulldozers are used to push the trash around.
• All landfills have garbage liquid.  The leached juices are collected and recycled at the water plant. 
• The landfill also makes power to return to the grid from methane gas. This power can provide electricity for up to 12000 homes in winter and 5000 homes in the summer.
• 24 refurbished diesel engines for tractor trailers were modified to run on methane and hooked up to generators/turbines to generate the power. 
• Garbage trucks must be washed before leaving landfill on rainy days. 
• Trucks are weighed on the way in and out and the values are subtracted to determine the amount of trash dumped.  
• We had an awesome tour guide.  She was very informative.  We also had a very enjoyable tour.  We traveled the site in a small tour bus with air conditioning and filtration.  We were comfortable and never smelled a thing!  I would certainly recommend the tour to others.

The main message I took away is that we are equipped to recycle just about everything, but people are still putting items into the trash that they shouldn't.

Ready to take the tour!

Getting on the tour bus with our goody bag.  Everything, including the bag itself, was made from recycled items.

Nice and comfy on the tour bus.

The bag is made from recycled plastic bottles.

A general map of the areas that we toured.

Electronics ready for recycling.  The landfill is overrun with old CRT screens.

Batteries, oil, and paint are collected here.

They take old propane tanks.

They take car, rechargeable, and household batteries.

This is the oyster shell recycling area.  They truck these back to the beach so baby oysters can attach to them.

This is the old landfill mound.  Pipes release gas.

These tubes direct rain water runoff down to the ditch.

Part of the lining of the new landfill site.

Also part of the lining.

The 3rd and final layer of the lining.

We go out briefly on top of the old landfill site.  It's a great view including Shearon Harris.

Cell one covered and cell 2 being filled.

Excess methane gas is burned off here when necessary.

Leached landfill juice is stored here before going to the water recycling center.

Diesel engines make power out of methane here.

Our spiffy tour bus.