The City of Albany Landfill, run by Joe Giebelhaus is a model of best practices in the modern landfill. Last week I got to see for myself as we went there to celebrate the 20 years we have provided the Posi-Shell product to the City of Albany Landfill for use as daily cover, intermediate cover and much more. The site has grown over the years from the "old days" of unlined landfilling practices. Today you will find there a modern lined landfill, with shredding capabilities to process those items that would otherwise decrease the ability to compact and place the waste efficiently. A well organized site with different locations to deposit waste of different types for proper processing makes the motion of the site smooth. Landfill gas is being captured and utilized to create electricity, and has been for years now. GPS software allows not only the operator to monitor the compaction beneath him, but management from the office can observe the movement as well, allowing them to properly plan as waste streams into the facility from many sources.
It was great to hear about the planning that is going into the future for this facility. Native trees and plants are going to begin to be grown there as they develop a nursery to eventually populate a preserve over the landfill as it moves into a closed state.
Today's landfill manager needs to be a person of many skills; people skills in managing the large crew required to staff such an operation, engineering skills to plan and organize the construction projects that are constant, business skills to make the best financial decisions to allow a facility to be profitable, and vision to plan ahead for a bright future as a facility closes and the space turns to a new life. Joe has shared his skills successfully in Albany and we count it a privilege to provide tools he can use.
