2 Of America’s Largest Landfills Are In Florida With 1 Right Here In Tampa Bay
Not going to lie, growing up going to the dump was a pretty fun outing. We used to take our trash to the dump weekly and sometimes you could even find some pretty cool things like old Schwinn Stingray bikes. But, ever wondered where America’s Largest Landfills actually are? Well, we have 2 right here in Florida with one being right here in Tampa Bay.
Just a few months ago, VisualCapitalist published its findings after analyzing data from Statista. They took the data from 2023 and used it to formulate the top 10 of America’s Largest Landfills.
VisualCapitalist.com said, “According to the EPA, the U.S. produced 292 million tons of solid waste in 2018. Of that, about 150 million tons headed to the country’s landfills. It would take more than 600 of the largest cargo ships (by dead weight tonnage) to move this much material at once.”
But, how can we use landfills to our advantage? Through a process called landfill gas recovery, landfills can actually trap the methane gas coming from the landfills and purify it. By doing this, they can create fuel for generators.
To kick things off, the first and largest landfill in the United States is actually a Guinness World Record holder. It has a whopping 2,200 acres out in Las Vegas, NV, and was named the World’s Largest Landfill back in 2020. Check out the video of the World’s Largest Landfill below.
Now, let’s get into America’s Largest Landfills.
The Top Ten Ranking Of America’s Largest Landfills From Statista:
- Apex Regional Landfill (Nevada): 994.92 million tons of waste.
- ECDC Environmental Landfill (Utah): 482 million tons of waste.
- Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site (Colorado): 396.05 million tons of waste
- Columbia Ridge Landfill (Oregon): 392.49 million tons of waste.
- Lockwood Regional Landfill (Nevada): 346.2 million tons of waste.
- Okeechobee Landfill (Florida): 241.55 million tons of waste.
- Butterfield Station Landfill (Arizona): 225.98 million tons of waste.
- Roosevelt Regional MSW Landfill (Washington): 218.76 million tons of waste.
- Wasatch Regional Landfill (Utah): 203.26 million tons of waste.
- Hillsborough County Landfill (Florida): 202.69 million tons of waste.
The Apex Regional Landfill tops the list of America’s Largest Landfills by having over double the capacity of the next in line, the ECDC Environmental Landfill. These landfills were measured based on their design capacity from 2023.
To learn more about America’s Largest Landfills, check out the study here.
