North Carolina Landfill Capacity Analysis

Each year, the Division of Solid Waste at the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) conducts a survey of the state's municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills to determine how long solid waste can be disposed of in each landfill before it is filled to capacity, according to last year's disposal rate. This map shows the precise location of each landfill in North Carolina. Scroll through the map and click on any landfill to view its estimated capacity in tons and in years, and to open a link to its specific report.

View Larger Map (Last updated using February 2007 data).

FY 2005-2006 North Carolina Landfill Capacity Analysis
(conducted by EFC and NCDENR)

• NC Landfill Capacity Factsheets (pdf; 178 KB)
  (updated for each of the state's 40 operational MSW landfills)
  • For factsheets for individual counties and landfills, click on the landfill in the Google Map above to see the link
• Map of Capacity in Tons for NC Landfills (small; 173 KB) (for print; 4.4 MB)
• Map of Capacity in Years for NC Landfills (small; 145 KB) (for print; 2.8 MB)
• Map of Capacity in Years and Tons for NC Landfills (small; 111 KB) (for print; 4.4 MB)
• Map of Waste Sheds - MSW Landfills used by NC Counties (pdf; 413 KB)
• Map of Regional Waste Flows to MSW Landfills (small; 168 KB) (for print; 10.2MB)
• NC Division of Solid Waste Management Annual Report FY 2005-2006 (pdf; 5 MB)

Research on more effective ways to present landfill capacity data:

Reports often include analyses that show a statewide average expected life (landfill capacity) of all of the landfills in the states combined. Due to the transportation costs, much of the capacity is not practically available to all counties within the state. Here is a report outlining more effective ways to present landfill capacity data.

• Report: One Person's Trash is Another's Treasure: "What Landfill Capacity Statistics Mean to Different Levels of Government" (pdf; 1.0 MB)
• PowerPoint (pdf; 1.1 MB)

For more information on this project, please contact Jeff Hughes.