By John Weare
Keep Alliance Beautiful
Author’s Note: This is the first in a multi-part look at the Alliance Municipal Landfill.
Though not committed to the page, one quote sticks: Everything ends up here. Not relevant enough for the camera’s card, south Alliance on a crisp January morning from atop landfill Cell 2, pairs with the sentiment from Clint Fankhauser in my memory.
“Everything” referred to whatever you can think of from a family home decades from now to the candy wrapper dropped in a park trash can. I know what we process at the recycling center does not contribute to a hill of garbage thereby at least keeping some of material out of the “everything” column. Yet, KAB deals with but a disappointingly small fraction of the overall waste as we strive to educate and accommodate people who reduce-reuse-recycle.
I talked to Clint, Alliance Municipal Landfill and Refuse Collection foreman, months ago about featuring our city’s landfill from a “where does it go?” standpoint.
We wanted to highlight the people and process behind the City’s role in waste management as our trash “disappears” like clockwork from the curb or alley every week.
At the landfill for six years and foreman the past four, “I originally applied because after moving here I was working in Bridgeport and got tired of the commute,” Clint said. Also at the facility: two baler operators, two trash truck drivers and a heavy equipment operator. A pair of trash trucks normally logs about 100 miles apiece a week, he said, in addition to another functioning backup truck. Also onsite: a skid steer, wheel loader, bulldozer, paddle scraper and excavator.
Whether watching the scraper gather snow between lanes on Alliance streets this winter or watching for a garbage truck to pull out on the way to work, we know the machines. Clint knows the people and what they do to serve the community. “I feel I have the best crew out of any department in the City,” he commented. “My guys know their stuff, they’re happy at work, they get along – it’s a happy working environment here. Definitely couldn’t do it without them. Rodney has been working here since the day I was born (nearly 44 years and four months ago).”
Overall, the landfill took in 13,927.7 tons for 2023. “It’s pretty average,” Clint explained. “During Covid we had a tremendous uptick when everyone was stuck at home.”
Drivers pause to latch onto hooks of Dumpsters or grab roll offs with what look like two-fingered hands. Once full, they back into the baler building and everything gets dumped on the tipping floor at the transfer station. Clint said the load is inspected, looking for hazardous materials, tires or anything that is not allowed. Once approved, staff pushes the refuse on the container where it’s fed into the baler. The equipment churns out 3x4x5-foot, 1,800-pound bales – significantly larger than models operated at the Keep Alliance Beautiful Recycling Center. Then, “We move it up onto the hill where they’re stacked and covered with dirt,” Clint said.
Refuse arrives by other conveyances. H & H is a local, private customer and the largest single source outside of the municipal routes. Besides their commercial routes, H & H also arrives with giant rolloffs. The landfill serves private contractors as well. “People bring anything from a Dumpster on a flatbed to a horse trailer full, we see it all,” Clint said. “We take anything from anywhere as long as it fits into the legal parameters of what we’re allowed to take.” Anyone
preparing a load should avoid hazardous chemicals, tires, asbestos liquids, diseased animals and other biowaste. “We need documentation for animals to prove they haven’t died from an infectious disease,” he added.