[Announce] Times Union Saratoga Landfill

[andy at nycowboy.org]

I honestly don't see Albany's tipping rates much lower then
the industry standard rates -- if any thing Albany is trying
to compete in a futile battle for a slice of the global
trash market. Albany is playing a game little different then
the commodity dairyman. They are trying to increase
production, trying to get enough of a margin to stay afloat
in the trash business.

Trash is a commodity much like milk. You don't need a dairy
farm next door if you want milk -- much less even anywhere
in your community. Likewise, you don't need a dump next door
if you want to get trash. You simply send trash to the
cheapest mega-facility that can produce the service of trash
disposal at the lowest possible cost. That's how free
markets work.

Saratoga is playing the commodity game in a smart way.
They're idling their landfill, hoping for a day when it
actually pays to operate a landfill when trash disposal
prices go up to a high enough price to be truly profitable
for the amount of land and problems it will cause the
community. Of course, that will probably happen about as
soon as it get profitable to be in the dairy industry
(probably never again, especially as waste export to China
becomes more popular).

Albany has a moral imperative only to operate a landfill
only for wastes actually produced and generated in county
boundaries, ie. leaves, brush, local farm and sewage waste
that has never crossed county lines. Otherwise, for
everything else, we are just importing garbage, and taking
care of somebody else's problems. Most products where
imported from outside of the county anyways. There are after
all, no pulp and paper factories in Albany County.

Fuel costs for waste industry is tiny -- particularly with
train and large ship exports. Semi trucks might become too
expensive, but compared to everything else we move on
freight trains, trash is a *VERY* tiny commodity. Remember,
we are moving 15x more coal a year on trains every year then
we generate in solid waste as a country. Freight trains are
amazingly efficient at moving lots of products with little
carbon production, particularly compared to semi-truck. 

> Nice to read in today's Times Union that Saratoga County
> has an empty landfill that is not being used while a third
> of their garbage goes to Albany or Colonie.  Most likely -
> Albany! Garbage from Saratoga, Greene and Schenectady
> Counties used to be listed in Albany's quarterly reports
> but they stopped filling in this section of the report to
> DEC about 2002 or 2003.   Are the resident in Saratoga
> County paying more?  HIgher gas prices - well between that
> and a low bulk deal for private haulers makes Albany quite
> attractive and would offset any travel cost increases.  
> Is Albany's low tipping fee subsidizing their garbage
> bill?
> 
> Would Saratoga County allow haulers from the ANSWERS
> community send garbage when their landfill opens and the
> Pine Bush is paved over with garbage?
> 
> 
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Thanks Andy. 

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