LOWER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — Out-of-state trash tonnage at Bethlehem Landfill is down about 10% from the previous quarter, dump officials said at Thursday’s quarterly Landfill Committee meeting in Lower Saucon.
Monthly reports show 15,800 to 16,500 tons during each of the last three months of 2023.
That’s compared with reports of 22,100 to 24,700 tons brought in from areas outside the Keystone State in each month ofJuly, August and September last year.
A landfill manager said that's because Waste Connections — the Bethlehem dump’s parent company based out of The Woodlands, Texas — acquired Arrowhead Environmental Partners of Perry County, Alabama, last year for what was reported as a $100 million revenue deal.
“So we purchased Arrowhead Disposal, which has a rail yard in Jersey, but they rail it to Alabama. Basically, the New York City waste from my company is going to start going to Alabama.”Bethlehem Landfill District Manager Astor Lawson
The organization features the “largest integrated waste-to-rail disposal network in the Northeast U.S.,” according to a 2023 Q2 report from Waste Connections.
“So we purchased Arrowhead Disposal, which has a rail yard in Jersey, but they rail it to Alabama,” Bethlehem Landfill District Manager Astor Lawson said.
“Basically, the New York City waste from my company is going to start going to Alabama.”
Officials said additional definitive numbers on the out-of-state weight would be shared at the next committee meeting, on April 18.
For the time being, Lawson assured the tonnage will continue dropping during the new year, as his company is buying more rail cars and getting the waste moved.
1,000 miles south
The Arrowhead Environmental Partners website says the company’s Alabama landfill serves customers from 33 states, taking in a maximum 15,000 tons per day, with 95% of that coming by rail.
That includes municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris, as well as other “certain industrial and special waste streams” with approval from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.
“Direct daily service from major Class I rail lines allows Arrowhead Landfill to efficiently accept waste for disposal from communities and customers east of the Mississippi River including Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast states as well as Oklahoma and Texas,” the website reads.
The landfill has a 425-acre footprint across its site, totaling 1,345 acres.
It’s in the west-central region of Alabama, about 80 miles from the capital city of Montgomery and a half-hour from historic Selma.
Back home
Meanwhile, several local municipalities, including Easton and Quakertown, are tapping into the use of the landfill at 2335 Applebutter Road in Lower Saucon.
“We’re obviously losing business; we’re going to try to bring in other stuff,” Lawson said. “Some of the haulers that we have have been winning the municipal contracts.”
In a way, township locals and others living close to Saucon Valley have gotten part of their wish after fighting the landfill’s newest expansion efforts for a couple of years now.
“I’ve listened for the past year to people stand and say why they’re against it. And it comes down to they don’t have any alternatives for landfills. It’s just, ‘Not in my backyard.’"Lower Saucon Township councilman Thomas Carocci, in a December meeting of the Planning Commission
If the landfill is going to continue to stay open and get bigger, it shouldn’t hold a majority of its volume in out-of-state trash, some residents have said.
However, some have said the landfill serves as a major revenue source for the township, and any talk against it is nothing more than political pandering.
“I’ve listened for the past year to people stand and say why they’re against it,” Lower Saucon Township councilman Thomas Carocci said in a December meeting of the Planning Commission.
“And it comes down to they don’t have any alternatives for landfills. It’s just, ‘Not in my backyard.’"
