A trash collection container at the Maplewood (Amelia) Landfill in Jetersville. (Photo by Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
Montgomery County, Maryland, is considering exporting its large volume of trash — and the resulting pollution — to a landfill in Virginia. In September, the County issued a request for proposals to long-haul and landfill the county’s approximately 600,000 tons of annually generated waste. County Executive Marc Elrich has long pushed to close the county’s trash incinerator.
This crucial decision involves complicated environmental, public health, equity and cost tradeoffs, and Montgomery County lacks vital pieces of information. We have summarized what we know and what we don’t know in a report posted by Friends of Sligo Creek, an NGO based in Takoma Park, Maryland…