Learn About the Dangers – Join the Fight – Make a Difference
Every Moment Counts
292,000,000,000.00
Annual U.S. Landfill Trash (lbs)
4,380,000,000.00
Annual Seneca Meadows Landfill Trash (lbs)
Billion Dollar Companies are Laying Waste to Our Land - Literally
Every day up to 12,500 tons of garbage are buried in the heart of a national tourist destination known as the Finger Lakes, making this bucolic region the final repository for about half of the waste landfilled in New York State.
And here's the kicker: Only about 6% of that waste is locally sourced. The rest? It’s shipped in from New York City, 54 other counties, neighboring states, and even Canada—far from where it originates.
Is it any wonder that the residents here are tired of being dumped on?
The story of these Landfills and their Impact translates to a story of two Possible Futures:
Seneca County is being buried under mountains of other people’s trash — a grotesque reality made even more infuriating by the bitter irony that it was named New York State’s most beautiful county by the travel site Love Exploring. What kind of beauty survives beneath a landfill?
Shown here is an aerial view of Seneca County’s Mega-landfill called Seneca Meadows.
UP TO 6,000 TONS OF TRASH DAILY FOR THE NEXT 15 YEARS?
Yes, that’s the current request from Seneca Meadows landfill, whose permit is set to expire this year
Did you know that on Dec 5, 2024, the officials who run our other mega-landfill (in Ontario County) voted 20-to-1 to close it in 2028, when that county's lease expires, citing, among other reasons, NYS’ move toward a zero-waste, circular economy that uses landfills as a last resort. However, Seneca Meadows landfill wants to expand until 2040, even though their permit expires this year and townspeople, regional governments and 100’s of businesses are opposed.
And now, that resistance is louder than ever. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy—representing the Cayuga, Seneca, Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, and Tuscarora indigenous nations—is urging the state to reject this expansion and confront the environmental injustice unfolding on their ancestral lands. Their message is clear: this land must be protected—not poisoned—for the future of all who call it home.
OUR “FOREVER” THREAT: QUIETLY LURKING
Landfills represent a long-term and often irreversible environmental threat, and their negative impacts can persist for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Even after landfills are closed and capped with soil, the waste acts as a "time capsule" of pollution, the legacy of which — including contamination of soil, water, and air, disruption of ecosystems, and the release of greenhouse gases — persists for centuries or even millennia.
The combination of toxic chemicals and the sheer volume of waste makes landfills a lasting danger to ecosystems, communities, and the planet as a whole.
And, of course, the bigger the landfill, the greater the threat.
Seneca Meadows Landfill, circa 2012 — a towering mountain of waste near Waterloo, NY’s busiest crossroads, releasing decades of pollution onto nearby homes and businesses since 1983.
Shown here again is “Seneca Meadows”: nearly 300 feet tall and almost 400 acres
FIGHTING THE FAIRYTALE OF “SAFE” LANDFILLS
Together, We Can Protect Our Communities from these Leaky Tombs of Unknown Chemicals
Did you know? This landfill is the largest in New York (2nd largest in the NE U.S.), and it's growing every day. And it’s not just any ordinary landfill; it’s a mega-landfill. Calling a mega-landfill a "meadow" is of course meant to draw attention away from the smorgasbord of contaminants they produce and the natural landscapes they destroy, as there’s simply no such thing as a safe landfill. No matter how many liners and other barriers are installed to try to mitigate the risk, the reality is that, over time, materials break down, and toxic chemicals and gases escape into the surrounding environment.
BEHOLD: THE DECADES-LONG, DAILY PROCESSION OF TRASH BURIAL
Up to 200 diesel-belching trucks per day, each with a 30-ton capacity, totaling 6,000 tons per day
No greater environmental and existential threat faces the Finger Lakes region
As one of the largest structures ever created by mankind, the Seneca Meadows landfill (shown above and below) now ranks at about twenty times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza, while upwards of 90% of its contents could have been recycled or composted.
Leachate is the contaminated liquid that drains or “leaches” from a landfill, picking up toxins, chemicals, and pollutants along the way. According to the 2021 Annual Report, Seneca Meadows landfill generates 75 million gallons of leachate each year, which translates to roughly 200,000 gallons of leachate per day.
This staggering statistic highlights not only the vast amount of waste that could have been diverted, but the toxins in its escaping gases and leachate that could have been prevented, which is why further expansion of this landfill and others needs to stop NOW.
In so many ways, this isn’t a matter of choice; but is something we must do. The very soils beneath our feet that have given us the agricultural bounty of the Finger Lakes are what we should be striving to replenish and nurture in return for what these soils have given us.
Written about 1500 years ago during the time of the Roman Empire is something known as the Public Trust Doctrine, which says that you and I bear responsibility for stewardship of the earth’s resources for the public good—now and for generations to come.
Photo courtesy of Katherine Bourbeau
Expert Voices
If human history reserves a privileged place for the Egyptians because of their rich conception of the afterlife, what place will it reserve for a people who, in their seeming worship of convenience and greed, left behind mountains of debris? What can be said of a culture whose legacies to the future are mounds of hazardous materials and a poisoned water supply? Will America’s pyramids be pyramids of waste?