Solid Waste Planning

Solid Waste Management Plan Adopted

The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission adopted a required 5-year update to the regional Solid Waste Management Plan on October 6, 2011. The update includes a description of existing and projected solid waste needs and facilities, as well as a plan for management of the solid waste generated by residential, industrial and commercial activities of the Thomas Jefferson Solid Waste Planning Unit (TJSWPU). This document serves as the regional plan for the TJSWPU, which is made up of the Counties of Albemarle, Greene, and Fluvanna, the City of Charlottesville, and the towns of Columbia, Scottsville, and Stanardsville. The plan meets the solid waste planning requirements for each locality participating in the planning unit by describing existing and proposed solid waste management systems that support the hierarchy of source reduction, reuse, recycling, resource recovery, incineration, and landfilling, as set forth by Virginia Code.

A committee of citizens and public and private sector representatives met regularly over the course of a year to amend this plan both to satisfy the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requirements, and to serve as a basis for strategic planning for solid waste in the longer term. The group reviewed data and trends on waste generation, recycling, reuse, and disposal, comparing it with data available about solid waste management systems capacity to determine future needs. Click here to view the Approved Plan.

Regional solid waste planning has a long history at the TJPDC, which led planning efforts in 1983, 1989 and 1991. The region covered in each of those plans matched the area of the planning district. The 1991 Solid Waste Management Plan is the most recent regional plan and was developed by a committee consisting of representatives from each locality and the University of Virginia. The plan fulfilled state requirements and provided a guide for development of a regional system to meet target goals of waste reduction and environmental compliance. That plan may be viewed at the right of this page.

TJPDC also assisted the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority in 1996 by staffing the Citizen's Solid Waste Task Force. That group was tasked with examining the status of the Ivy Landfill, investigating alternatives to disposal, and proposing the best disposal solution or combination of solutions to benefit the community. The task force was unable to reach full consensus on all items but did agree on a number of topics and was responsible for gathering some helpful background information, including a waste sort at the Ivy Landfill. That plan, from the Solid Waste Task Force, may be viewed at the right of this page.