The Winters Rail Terminal is on track, and we appreciate your interest in this important project. In this issue of the newsletter, we discuss the impending closure of the Brookhaven Landfill in 2024 and the looming waste crisis on Long Island. For more information, visit our website!
What the Brookhaven Landfill Closure Means For Long Island’s Future
There is a lack of disposal capacity for waste on Long Island, and every day that lack of disposal capacity becomes more evident.
When the Brookhaven Landfill closes in 2024, the amount of C&D waste shipped off‐island will increase significantly. Currently, the Brookhaven Landfill buries about 1.1 million tons of waste materials per year: construction and demolition waste, ash from incinerated garbage, and waste from auto shredders.
The Brookhaven Landfill accepts approximately:
- 720,000 tons of construction waste per year
- 350,000 tons of incinerator ash
- 100,000 tons of toxic auto fluff (waste from automobile shredding)
Even now, the Brookhaven Landfill cannot provide services for all the C&D debris seeking disposal at that facility. In 2018, inbound volumes were capped at the end of the year to remain in compliance with capacity limitations.
Using present statistics, the closure of the Brookhaven Landfill will lead to an additional estimated 720,000 tons per year of C&D and related waste in need of disposal, the majority of which will more than likely not be transported and disposed of off‐island. Additionally, in the event the Brookhaven Landfill also closes its doors to the disposal of waste‐to‐energy ash, over 350,000 tons of this waste will require an alternate disposal site. This site would more than likely be on‐island.