Any community the size of the University or of Charlottesville produces a whole lot of trash, much of which ends up in holes in the ground.
University Trash
Last year the University produced 12,186 tons of waste. Though the University's recycling program expanded rapidly in the 90s, most of that waste, 7,533 tons of it, was not recycled. This trash ended up in a landfill in Amelia County, Virginia with the help of contractor Waste Management Inc.
Though the University's total amount of waste -- including materials that are recycled and those that end up in landfills -- is always significant, it varies quite a bit from year to year.
Denny Clark, the official who oversees trash and recycling for Facilities Management, said years when the University is engaged in a lot of construction tend to be the ones in which it produces the most waste.
In 1990 the University produced over 15,000 tons of waste, while for most of the 90s the figure was closer to 10,000 tons. Waste production then spiked to 13,000 tons in 2000, before declining to last year's levels.
Due to increased construction, the University's waste production is likely to increase by 6 to 7 percent this year, Clark said.
According to Clark, one challenge the University has in controlling waste levels is the tendency of some employees to dump their trash at work -- a practice that costs the University thousands of dollars.
"A lot of people think it's a benefit of working here," he said.
Given that Charlottesville recently has increased the cost of trash removal stickers, the problem is likely to worsen in the future, he added.
Charlottesville Trash
Like the University, the city hires a contractor to handle trash removal.
Though Charlottesville once kept trash within its own borders, today Browning-Ferris Industries transports away the city's waste.
"We haven't dumped municipal solid waste at the Ivy landfill for some time," said city spokesperson Maurice Jones.
Now that the Ivy Road landfill is no longer in use, city officials are trying to clean it up.
To help pay for this effort, this summer Charlottesville doubled the sticker cost for bags of trash from $1 to $2 for 32-gallon bags and 50 cents to $1 for 13-gallon bags.
The price increases "are primarily to cover the cost of waste management," Jones said.
Both Clark and Jones said they did not know how long the landfills where the University and city send their trash, respectively, would have room to continue to accept waste.
"Absolutely it will fill up," Clark said. "Sooner or later we're going to run out of room."
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