Habersham County’s landfill is filling up faster than it was expected to— nearly 63 percent faster— and Habersham County Commissioner Bruce Palmer isn’t sure there will be another landfill in the county after it fills up.
At Commissioner Bruce Palmer’s public works town hall on Tuesday, Palmer brought up the state of the landfill, and that it’s filling up faster than the county bargained for.
In September 2020, cell 5, the last cell at the Habersham County Landfill, opened. The county estimated at that time that it would take about two years for the first layer of cell 5 to fill. It took 11 months.
In August of 2015, it was estimated that the landfill would last another 60 years before reaching capacity. In August of 2021, that estimation changed to 22 years.
In October of 2021, former Habersham County Public Works Director Derick Canupp said he estimated the landfill would be full in just 15 years.
“In my opinion, seeing what I’ve seen in eight and a half years, will it last that long? Probably not,” Canupp told the commission in October. “I do think that in the next 5 to 7 years, I think the county really needs to start thinking about a transfer station and looking at a location for that.”
There hasn’t been a plan made since that meeting. “We have to do something,” Palmer said Tuesday.
He says the best thing citizens can do right now to help the quickly-filling landfill is to do what environmentalists have been encouraging for years: recycle. But he admits that Habersham doesn’t have the best recycling facilities.
“Now, as bad as I hate to say this, our recycling centers aren’t the best ever,” Palmer said. “It’s what we have to work with with the funding that we have.”
Palmer noted that the recycling centers in the county, located in Clarkesville, Cornelia and at the landfill, are not very accessible for seniors or people with disabilities. To load recyclables into several receptacles in the county, citizens have to climb stairs and/or lift things overhead to recycle them. While the county accepts most types of recyclables, such as paper, cardboard, glass and aluminum, they only accept 1 and 2 plastics, which account for two of the seven most commonly used plastics in the United States— meaning the other five go in the county landfill.
A new landfill?
Palmer says that he’s working on a plan to improve recycling options and look into ways to extend the life of the landfill, because after the current landfill reaches capacity, he doesn’t think there will be another landfill in Habersham.
“Quite honestly, I don’t feel like we’ll ever build another landfill in Habersham County,” Palmer tells Now Habersham. “I don’t think the citizens will allow it, so we’re going to have to take our garbage somewhere else.”
Palmer believes that not having a landfill in the county would make trash removal much more expensive for citizens, and they could see those removal fees in their bills and taxes.
“Just the fact of trucking it somewhere else is going to be expensive,” Palmer said. “Whether it’s in a tax, or whether it’s the trash companies having to take the garbage, say to Banks County to the Waste Management down there, they’re not going to still pick up your trash here for the same amount and have to take it all the way to Banks County. They’re going to charge more.”
He says the commission would have no control over how a company’s trash removal fees would increase. For citizens who haul their own garbage, they may have to drive out of the county to take their trash to a landfill.
“That’s more of an inconvenience and a cost for the homeowner even to take their own trash,” Palmer said.
To view a recording of the meeting, click here.
