Habersham’s landfill could be full within the next 15 years, and is in need of an improved recycling facility, according to Habersham County Senior Public Works Director Derick Canupp.
At the county commission’s Monday meeting, Habersham Commissioner Bruce Harkness asked Canupp for his honest opinion on the life expectancy of the county landfill during his public works report.
According to Canupp, studies completed on the landfill estimate it has another 20 years of life left, but his experience says otherwise. He believes that the landfill has about 15 years left, based on how trash amounts have changed and the continued growth in the county.
“In my opinion, seeing what I’ve seen in eight and a half years, will it last that long? Probably not,” Canupp tells the commission. “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.”
Canupp says that the county needs to revisit recycling options, too.
“When that planning starts in the next few years for a site, I would also consider getting a nice, robust recycling facility at the same location,” he says. “Our recycling has really outgrown [the facility]— I really should have done something a long time ago about it— it really has outgrown what it is.”
Canupp says Clarkesville’s recycling facility produces twice the amount of recycling as the Cornelia facility, and the county needs to consider better infrastructure to support it.
Commissioner Harkness tells Now Habersham that the county landfill currently takes in 120 tons of solid waste per day, and that the county is in “dire” need of a long-term plan to take care of the waste generated in Habersham.
“I really think [this is] another project this commission needs to look at seriously,” Commissioner Bruce Harkness said. “We can’t kick it down the road.”
