Virginia Landfills Filled With Tons Of Maryland, New York Trash

VIRGINIA — More than 25 percent of the waste received by landfills and incinerators in Virginia came from out of state in 2020, with Maryland and New York leading the way in sending their waste to Virginia.

A total of 22.5 million tons of solid waste was received by Virginia’s waste management facilities. Of this total, 5.7 million tons came from out of state, according to a new report from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

Five jurisdictions accounted for 97.2 percent of all waste received from out-of-state sources in 2020: Maryland at 42.72 percent, or 2.4 million tons; New York at 16.71 percent, or 948,698 tons; New Jersey at 16.47 percent, or 934,899 tons; Washington, D.C. at 15.14 percent, or 859,082 tons; and North Carolina at 6.16 percent, or 349,558 tons.

The report, “2021 Annual Solid Waste Report for CY2020,” stated that of the solid waste managed in Virginia in 2020, 72.38 percent, or 13.7 million tons, were dumped at landfills, 11.84 percent, or 2.2 million tons, were incinerated onsite, and the rest was managed by other means.

Of all solid waste received at Virginia facilities during the year, 63.64 percent was municipal solid waste, 19.28 percent was construction/demolition/debris waste, 6.03 percent was industrial waste, and the remainder was other types of waste.

The state requires the DEQ to prepare a report by June 30 of each year describing the amount of solid waste disposed of in the state during the previous year. All permitted facilities that treat, store, or dispose of solid waste are required to provide the DEQ with information.

During calendar year 2020, the total solid waste received from out-of-state decreased by 1.87 percent, the report said. In 2019, a total of 5.8 million tons of solid waste was received from out of state. The largest amount of solid waste imported by Virginia over the last 10 years occurred in 2016 when 6.1 million tons was received.

Virginia has four commercial incinerators of solid waste and two federal incinerators. The state’s four commercial incinerators are the Covanta Facility in Lorton, the Covanta facility in Alexandria, the Wheelabrator facility in Portsmouth and the Hampton-NASA Steam Plant in Hampton.

Two federal government agencies that require hard copies of many of their documents to be burned operate incinerators in Northern Virginia: the CIA at its headquarters in Langley and the Department of Defense at the Pentagon in Arlington.

The largest landfills in Northern Virginia are the Prince William County Sanitary Landfill near Manassas, which received 376,048 tons of solid waste in 2020 and has an expected 12.8 years of capacity remaining; the Interstate 95 landfill in Lorton, which received 356,319 tons of solid waste in 2020 and has an expected 33 years of capacity remaining; and the Loudoun County Solid Waste Management Facility near Leesburg, which received 209,774 tons of solid waste in 2020 and has an expected 46 years of capacity remaining.

Virginia took in solid waste from several other states. Here are the other states that exported more than 1,000 tons of solid waste to Virginia in 2020: Connecticut at 51,348 tons, Massachusetts at 30,936 tons, Pennsylvania at 23,989 tons, Tennessee at 20,705 tons, Delaware at 16,280 tons, West Virginia at 6,184 tons and South Carolina at 1,757 tons.