Where Does My Trash Go After It’s Picked Up?

Have you ever wondered where your garbage goes after it’s picked up from your curb? No, it isn’t magic! Your garbage makes quite the journey from your curb to to landfill. So where does it all start?

Your garbage begins it’s journey when you place it at the curb each week. First, your local driver will pick up the trash in your neighborhood. When the garbage truck is full, the driver heads to a local transfer station. Drivers usual take 2-3 trips to the transfer station each day.

A transfer station is where your trash is temporarily deposited before it’s transferred to a landfill. At these stations, the truck is weighed then it empties the garbage into a large shed. This process allows the local garbage truck to quickly head back to your neighborhood to continue collecting garbage.

After it is deposited, the garbage only remains in the shed momentarily. The contents of the shed are constantly scooped up by heavy duty loaders and put into large semi transfer trucks, much like the ones you see on the highway. After the semi truck is filled with material, it heads to a landfill.

Once the garbage arrives at it’s final destination, it’s tipped out of the transport truck into a specific part of a landfill called a cell. This cell is the open or active portion of the landfill and is used until it’s filled. Landfills use heavy equipment to ride over and crush the garbage to make as much space as possible.

If a cell isn’t finished by the end of the day, workers put something called “daily cover” over the garbage in order to protect the environment around it. The daily cover is usually a layer of topsoil which discourages birds and pests, and protects the cell from the wind overnight. In the morning, the daily cover is scraped off and work continues.

Once the cell is filled, the area is covered up with a layer of soil and another cell becomes active. To protect the environment, several monitoring systems are put in place. Landfills can be equipped various systems, like storm water drainage systems, a leachate collection system, a gas collection system, environmental monitoring systems, and a final cover system. Once a landfill is closed, it is monitored for may years. They can even be made into a parks, golf courses or nature reserves.

When you separate your garbage from your recycling, your recycling goes on a different journey. Instead of the transfer station, your recyclables get sent to a sorting facility. At the sorting facility, mixed recyclables are separated by type: paper, cardboard, plastic and cans. After they’re sorted, each material is formed into large bales and loaded into trucks. These bales are then taken to other facilities that can reuse the material and create new products.