Landfills

Last municipal landfill in Rhode Island to close by November

With a two-year extension period ending, the only municipally owned landfill in Rhode Island is gearing up to start its closure process by the end of November, according to The Herald News.

The Tiverton Landfill originally was slated to begin its closure and capping process in 2020; however, the town requested an extension, citing the ongoing pandemic and the opening of Bally’s Tiverton Casino as reasons for the delay.

As the landfill begins its closure process, the town of Tiverton will start sending municipal solid waste to the Central Landfill in Johnston—owned and operated by Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp.

Capping the 33-acre Tiverton Landfill with soil will cost the town roughly $12.5 million and will take about a year and a half. The town’s landfill closure fund is still about $2 million shy of that figure.

Tiverton reportedly has been contributing to this fund since 2014 when it first drafted its landfill closure plan. The town mainly has been using proceeds from the sales of authorized trash bags required as part of its pay-as-you-throw curbside waste collection service to build the fund.

Town Administrator Christopher Cotta told The Herald News that Tiverton plans to continue using the pay-as-you-throw model for curbside collection “to chip away at the rest of the money needed to complete the landfill closure process.” An estimated 7,000 households use the town’s curbside collection service.

After the landfill closure process is completed, Cotta told The Herald News that Tiverton will look into the possibility of installing a solar panel farm on the property.