On June 27, 2012, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) released its 15th annual report on solid waste management in Virginia, covering municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris, vegetative and yard waste, and other types of waste collected in 2011 at 208 permitted facilities. The total amount of solid waste received at Virginia facilities during 2011 was about 20.7 million tons, an increase of about one million tons from 2010’s total. Municipal solid waste comprised about 12.4 million tons of Virginia’s total waste in 2011; construction and demolition debris comprised about 3.8 million tons. About 5.6 million tons of the 2011 total were generated from outside of Virginia. Out-of-state waste came primarily (97.1 percent) from Maryland (40 percent), New York (28 percent), Washington, D.C. (21 percent), North Carolina (4 percent), and New Jersey (4 percent). Of the 2011 total waste, about 12.9 million tons (75 percent) were disposed of in landfills and about 2.1 million tons (12 percent) were incinerated; the rest was managed by mulching, recycling, or other means. The report for 2011 (30 pages) and reports for previous years are available at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/LandProtectionRevitalization/ReportsPublications/AnnualSolidWasteReports.aspx.
Source: Virginia issues solid waste report for 2011, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality News Release, 6/27/12
