Waste volumes falling in recession

Here's more evidence, from the Washington Post this time, that the recession will buy us some time in designing a 21st Century waste management system.

The Post says waste volumes to landfills have fallen as much as 30% in some places. When the economy slows, so does our garbage. At Vancouver City Hall last week, a permit approval staff person told me that the traffic through their office has fallen off dramatically. (The fastest-growing waste stream in our region for years has been construction debris created by developers hell-bent-for-leather to get old buildings down and new ones up while the meter ticked on their loans....)

This takes the pressure off our region to invest massive sums in development of new disposal facilities to replace the Cache Creek Landfill. We can get a few more years out of it while we consider why it is we produce so much waste in the first place.

Pic: Flickr photo