This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hirshfeld, S. Articles by Pas, E. I. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Hirshfeld, S. Articles by Pas, E. I. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Assessing the True Cost of Landfills

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, U.S.A.

P. Aarne Vesilind

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A.

Eric I. Pas

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A.

The most common means for disposing of municipal solid waste is burial in a sanitary landfill. However, many landfill owners significantly underestimate the total cost of landfill disposal by considering only land and operating costs, ignoring external physical and social costs associated with landfills. This paper proposes an approach to estimating (in monetary terms) the external costs arising from the development and operation of a landfill. All cost information is based on typical U.S. landfill cost structures. The approach is illustrated by applying it to a case study of a proposed landfill in Durham, North Carolina (U.S.A.). This case study demonstrates that the method can be applied easily and yields reasonable results.

Key Words: Refuse • landfilling • costs • U.S.A.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?