What happens in the US if/when we run out of landfill space?

That'll likely never happen. Available land doesn't run out or disappear; it just becomes increasingly expensive. The US will likely never run out of landfill space. Rather it's more likely that the cost to bury garbage will rise above the cost of the alternatives. read more

Landfill can be done as a land raise where the waste is pilled up and covered over so you could say no we will never run out of space. The EU is aiming for zero waste to landfill, this is a theoretical concept and the ultimate aim is to raise recycling to 70% by 2030 and eliminate organic waste being disposed of in landfill as this can be used to generate electricity in an anaerobic digestion process. read more

That’ll likely never happen. Available land doesn’t run out or disappear; it just becomes increasingly expensive. The US will likely never run out of landfill space. read more

To make up for these costs, landfill operators began to emphasize economies of scale. Rather than having lots of tiny dumps scattered everywhere, we now have a small number of mega-landfills. In 1986, there were 7,683 dumps in the United States. read more

The US will likely never run out of landfill space. Rather it’s more likely that the cost to bury garbage will rise above the cost of the alternatives. In which case, people will switch to recycling, composting, and incineration. read more