An exercise in sound fiscal planning

摘要

While landfills are generally getting larger, governments-particularly in rural and semi-rural areas-own many smaller facilities. Eventually, they'll run out of room. When they do, the costs associated with solid waste collection go away, but not those related to the landfill itself. Certain activities, such as monitoring and collecting methane and leachate, must continue. EPA requires private owners to fund these future expenditures via a surety guarantee or performance bond. However, publicly owned landfills are only required to estimate those costs. When it's time to actually pay those bills, public solid waste agencies that haven't planned ahead will be in the same boat as many government pension plans.