Earlier this year, the city of Ridgeland announced they would not be a part of Madison County’s solid waste management plan.
The mayor and the board of aldermen believed that since Ridgeland’s waste did not go to the same landfill as the rest of Madison County’s waste, they did not need to be accounted for in the county plan.
“We didn’t believe that the Madison County solid waste plan accurately represented the solid waste reams we were producing,” said Ridgeland Public Works Director Mike McCollum. In their last county plan they didn’t even account for Ridgeland’s commercial waste. We have a class one rubbish site after doing the annexation, and the city of Canton has a municipal solid waste dump as well. So we didn’t feel like we needed to be a part of their plan.”
Recently, the city sent Mississippi Department of Environmental Equality (MDEQ) a request to fund the creation of a new waste plan. They requested 75 percent of the funding needed to create the plan—$54,375. MDEQ sent back a letter, which was recorded at the March 16th board of aldermen meeting, stating their approval.
According to a letter sent to Ridgeland and the board of aldermen, the grant is going to be approved: “Based on our review, the city’s grant request in the amount of $54,375 has been preliminarily approved…”
Ridgeland applied for the grant through MDEQ’s solid waste planning grant. The grant stipulates it will fund 75 percent of a project and that MDEQ must consider other grant applications when they allocate funds.
“We had to submit a budget regarding the development of the plan. And in the plan, we go out and look at the waste reams that we have: curbside recycling, solid waste, commercial waste, and commercial recycling, multifamily waste and recycling,” said Mike McCollum, Ridgeland’s Public Works Director.
For MDEQ, one of their main purposes is to help municipalities reduce their waste.
“There are basically a lot of categories of waste, and Ridgeland will do surveys on them. MDEQ’s goal is to reuse 25% of your solid waste ream. One thing that has come to our attention is that the residential solid waste for curbside is 7,500 tons and 22,000 for commercial.”
That is because commercial business is producing waste at an exponential rate compared to family homes.
“One of the reasons that is such a large number is the number of businesses and restaurants. All of those are big generators of solid waste. We need to focus on recycling and reuse on commercial waste.”
Residential recycling in the city is around 875 tons a year.
“That’s tonnage that doesn’t go into the landfill.”
Some of MDEQ’s grant stipulations include involving the community in the plans, to reserve five percent of the funds for helping minority-owned businesses obtain supplies and labor, and requiring that all reports associated with the solid waste plan be printed on recycled paper.
Solid waste plans are something every municipality has. They are required to understand the amount of waste being produced. Without them, efforts to reduce waste are obliterated. McCollum explained how the plan isn’t necessarily about the logistics of where the waste is going.
“Basically, to know what the character of your waste is. What you have out there and the volumes of waste so you can have a good plan for the reuse and recycle of the waste. That’s just to protect the environment.”
