The Problem … Everybody in Wyoming generates garbage, and the vast majority of it ends up in a landfill somewhere. Most of our landfills are unlined, and some are leaking and polluting our groundwater. If we want to continue to bury the solid waste we generate, we need to start building our landfills with liners to protect our groundwater. Lining the many existing landfills in Wyoming will be an expensive proposition, so we need to determine if there are other options that may be more cost effective, and better for our environment.

What is Integrated Solid Waste Management Planning? … The objective of integrated solid waste management planning is to inventory and evaluate our existing systems, carefully investigate what alternatives are available, and then decide what system offers the most reasonable solution to our solid waste problem for the next 20 years. It is possible that the most reasonable solution will involve some combination of diversion, recycling, composting, transfer, special waste, and disposal systems. Some of these systems are expensive to construct and operate in small, rural communities, so it makes sense for neighboring communities to consider solving the problem together rather than individually.