Middle Point Landfill GM Mike Classen takes questions from the public on issues that concern them.
- What do you feel is the remaining life of Middle Point Landfill (ans. 5.5 years)
- Would recycling prolong the life of the landfill. (ans. yes, and Republic Services is for extending the landfill's life.
- The City of Murfreesboro appears to be readying to for the end of life at the landfill by a recycling program, creating a product from the waste and building a transfer station. Since BFI/Republic have facilities across the nation, have you seen in other locations a program that works better? (ans. yes, we are willing to meet with government leaders and negotiate a better agreement for the city).
- A listeners was concerned with the gas being burned and whether it was a health issue for residents in the area. ((ans. no, in fact Republic has proposed to have a propane plant on our site that would create propane from the gas. We could send it to ATMOS Energy and heat 80,000 homes per year. Republic/BFI is interested in doing as many ways as possible to improve this community's environment.
- A listener asked about sludge and trash coming off garbage trucks and falling near schools. (Classen said his crew helps pickup trash in the area, but he wants to do more--we're neighbors of Walter Hill School. Republic has recently awarded Walter Hill School a $120,000 grant to build an outdoor STEAM classroom.)
- Was Middle Point Landfill ever level ground? (ans. yes, it was back in 1989 when we began).
- How high is the landfill now? (ans. approximately 180-feet).
- Do you still get "smell complaints"? (ans. yes--we have made a considerable investment in correcting this and other issues. When you think of landfills, you naturally think of stink. We had city and county leaders on top of the landfill recently, and we asked them if they smelled anything? They said "NO". Classen noted, "Again, we're in a business that naturally gets blamed for smell, but things we have done to resolve the issue work."
