Digging deeper

Read the full story at Indyweek.com.

North Carolina has not learned from the past. Your trash is part of the 9 million tons of garbage North Carolina generated last year, and much of it went into landfills in low-income neighborhoods. To accommodate this load of discarded fast-food containers, broken toys and other garbage, North Carolina has 1,397 waste facilities: active and closed municipal landfills, transfer stations, incinerators, waste processors and industrial, construction and demolition landfills.

The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources continues to issue permits for new and expanded landfills—regulations passed in 1983 require them to be lined—and most of them are being built or expanded in underprivileged areas.

A 2007 study by the UNC Department of Epidemiology, "Race, Wealth, and Solid Waste Facilities in North Carolina," concluded that solid waste facilities present "numerous public health concerns and are disproportionately located in communities of color and low wealth," adding "the continued need for new facilities could exacerbate this environmental injustice."

Despite legal challenges, the state has yet to lose a court case. "Efforts to site new facilities meet strong opposition, and many recent permit decisions granted by the state's Solid Waste Section have been challenged in court," Ellen Lorscheider, DENR planning and programs branch chief, says, adding that "to date, all decisions have been upheld."