When Anthony Detweiler, Manatee County’s superintendent at the Lena Road Landfill, started working at the landfill 22 years ago, the piles of garbage were measured using basic equipment 鈥� a measuring tape and a level. Now, the process of compacting garbage barely requires human input.
Instead of the drivers eyeballing massive piles of waste to try to achieve the perfect compaction and slope, the bulldozers are equipped with technology that guides the drivers’ every move.聽The system is programmed to know exactly where the bulldozers need to place each shovel of garbage for the most efficient compaction, which can impact both the longevity of the landfill and its budget.
Fill dirt is expensive. The county has about $2.5 million worth of it between the two closed landfill cells. Cells are the areas where the waste is contained. The Lena Road Landfill has three cells, but only one is in operation.聽Slopes are an important measurement in a landfill because they dictate how the airspace is used. Adjusting the cells from a 4:1 slope to a 3:1 slope will extend the life of the Lena Road Landfill through 2057.