Puerto Rico Landfill Problems: All You Need to Know

ECO RICH ^ | Published May 09, 2022

[11th_VA]

According to a study commissioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and conducted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Puerto Rico could run out of landfill space in 2-4 years. This long-identified capacity issue has been exacerbated by tonnes of debris left behind by two back-to-back hurricanes that devastated the region in 2017.

However, at least two big Puerto Rican waste companies believe that insufficient capacity is not the underlying issue. The largest sites claim that they can probably take in the trash for more than 30 years. They claim that the problems are primarily related to compliance and poor management, which seem to be the result of limited resources. Continue reading to learn more about the landfill issues in Puerto Rico.

Randy Jensen, president, and CEO of EC Waste says, “There is an absolute landfill crisis in Puerto Rico, but it’s not air space. It is that we still allow 22 unlined dumps to accept waste. While we do have regulations, enforcement on the island is not consistent. I believe more consistent enforcement needs to occur across all waste receiving sites.” ...

[HamiltonJay]

Don’t care...

A bad joke that even the audience groaned when he delivered it.

Honestly who cares... don’t care about the joke, the insane reaction by the left over it, or the folks who feel they need to defend it....

Its all nonsense.

[1Old Pro]

They made the island a cesspool, and still live on it.

It's been like that for decades. I know someone who was going to buy a bunch of property with lots of beach front. Took a plane ride to oversea the land, noticed filty dirty polluted water with sewage running into the ocean next to the land's beach, didn't but the property. This was 40 years ago.

[GenXPolymath]

I’m a fan of plasma gasification it’s the next level up from just incineration for steam and electricity. With plasma you get clean syngas and you can do some neat things once you have clean syngas. The obvious choice is run a combined cycle gas turbine at 60% eff twice what a steam plant would do.

Another choice is turn the syngas via Iron catalysts to C1-C4 alkanes and alkenes that’s methane(natural gas),ethane, ethylene(HDPE,LDPE),propane,propylene(polymers),butane,butene(more polymers,all synthetic oils). Of course any of the C1-4 can be hydrated to their alcohols(methanol,ethanol,isopropyl,butanol).

Gas fermentation technology is mature with a number of industrial scale companies.LanzaTech is the world leaders and they have engineered microbes that eat carbon monoxide and hydrogen and make 150 different chemicals including complete proteins, starch or sugars and lipids. Read that as complete food for animals or even people.

Of course you could just go old.skool and use cobalt catalysts to do the WWII German thing and make long chain alkanes C6-10 is petrol, C10-16 is jet fuel and C16-20 is diesel. C20+ is a fine lubricant base stock and wax. Once you have syngas any hydrocarbon is just some chemistry away. Add in nitrogen from the air and proteins are in reach too.

https://netl.doe.gov/research/Coal/energy-systems/gasification/gasifipedia/westinghouse

[packrat35]

But it is literally true.

[woodbutcher1963]

Sorry, I only took Inorganic Chemistry. About 42 years ago.
You lost me.

All I know is they burn our trash at a Wheelabrator Technologies plant in NH. There are multiple plants like that up here in New England. Basically because all the landfills are full except way up in Maine or northern NH.

FYI, I was very glad when a neighboring town finally closed their landfill. That is because there was a flock of seagulls that hung out on the lake near my house. They would go over to the landfill and eat all day then come back and hang out on the lake at night. This was a lake 60 miles from the ocean. When they closed the landfill the seagulls left.

[Ex gun maker.]

Yes, shipping is insane now, even domestically.
But TD only requires the local transport that is already being done.
The equipment is not complex.

[SC DOC]

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/14/570927809/after-maria-puerto-rico-struggles-under-the-weight-of-its-own-garbage
https://www.ecorichenv.com/article/puerto-rico-landfill-problems
https://www.courthousenews.com/epa-sues-puerto-rico-city-over-landfill-overflow/
https://www.wastedive.com/news/puerto-rico-landfills-epa-regan-doj-environmental-justice/635893/
https://grist.org/extreme-weather/disaster-debris-is-pushing-puerto-ricos-landfills-to-the-brink/
https://globalpressjournal.com/americas/puerto-rico/trash-crisis-leaves-puerto-rico-brink/
https://www.recycling-magazine.com/2021/03/19/fixing-the-caribbeans-solid-waste-problem/
https://insidesources.com/landfill-crisis-puerto-rico-governor-epa/
https://insidesources.com/tag/puerto-rico-landfill-crisis/
https://www.waste360.com/landfill/puerto-rico-landfills-is-the-problem-around-capacity-or-noncompliance-
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-and-doj-settlement-will-address-problems-toa-alta-landfill
https://pasquines.us/2018/01/04/puerto-ricos-trash-problem/