Dive Summary:

• A proposal that would have allowed Waste Management to build a new transfer station in South Carolina’s Spartanburg County, in exchange for closing its current site, the Palmetto Landfill, has been nixed by Spartanburg County Council members.
• The council followed its constituents' requests to decline the deal due to a distrust of the company within the community, stemming from Waste Management's extending the life of the landfill by slowing down its trash intake to a minimum.
• As long as the Palmetto Landfill remains open, Waste Management can build a replacement landfill without proving a need to the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

From the article:

The landfill is permitted to accept 1.2 million tons of trash annually, but in 2012 only took in 291,086 tons, according to Department of Health and Environmental Control records.

“Spartanburg County Council approval is required for us to open a new, state of the art transfer station that would allow us to close the Palmetto Landfill within 18 months and literally transfer waste out of Spartanburg County daily from that transfer station,” [Waste Management spokesman Bob] Peeler said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “ … the landfill will stay open indefinitely.”

“It'll be a slow death,” Culbreth said. “(Waste Management) will want to keep that permit…”