Landfill Disposal

The Macon County Municipal Waste Management Plan designates the method of landfilling as our county’s best management practice for disposing of waste that may not be locally collected for recycling or composted.  Advanced Disposal Service’s Valley View Landfill is the county’s sole municipal solid waste landfill.

Illinois law prohibits the disposal of certain types of waste in municipal solid waste landfills including:

crushed appliances
Processed white goods for shipment from the metal recycler.

Appliances that contain “white good components” such as mercury-containing switches, PCBs, chlorofluorocarbon refrigerant gas or mercury-containing light bulbs (Public Act 87-858, landfill ban effective July 1, 1994; Illinois Environmental Protection Act 5/22.28)

Electronics such as computers and TVs (Public Act 95-0959, amended in Public Acts 97-0287, 98-0714 & 99-0013,  landfill ban effective January 1, 2012)

Lead acid motor vehicle batteries (Public Act 86-723, landfill ban effective September 1, 1990; Illinois Environmental Protection Act 5/22.23)

Mercury-switch thermostats (Public Act 096-1295, landfill ban effective January 1, 2011)

Motor oil (Public Act 87-1213, landfill ban effective July 1, 1996; Illinois Environmental Protection Act 5/21.6)

Landscape waste  (Public Act 85-1430, landfill effective July 1, 1990; Illinois Environmental Protection Act 5/22.22)

Tires (Public Act 86-452, landfill effective July 1, 1994; Illinois Environmental Protection Act 5/55)

Resources for properly managing these banned items are available in the Department’s Recycling & Safe Disposal Guide.

Landfills

Modern, engineered landfills are regulated under Title 35 of the Illinois Administrative Code, the Illinois Environmental Protection Act and facility-specific permits issued by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. These regulations specify procedures and standards for the development, operation, and closure of landfills to minimize pollution and off-site impacts.

Also under these regulations, state fees were established for each non-exempt ton of waste received in Illinois landfills. The graduated fee scale requires that landfills, which receive more than 150,000 cubic yards of waste in a year, submit a Subtitle D Fee at the rate of $0.22 for every ton collected along with a Solid Waste Tipping Fee of $2.00 per ton.  The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is the recipient of the Subtitle D fees and approximately 70% of the Solid Waste Tipping Fees. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity receives the remaining Solid Waste Tipping Fees.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Act also authorizes local governments that host a landfill to either collect a surcharge at the rate of $1.27 for every non-exempt ton of waste or collect a negotiated community host fee. Macon County, Illinois entered into a Host Agreement with the owners/operators of Valley View Landfill and currently receives community host fees from Advanced Disposal Services.  A portion of the fees are budgeted to the Macon County Environmental Management Department to fund programs for recycling and safe disposal.  Click here for more information about department financing.