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I talk to Ethan Tupelo, a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and part owner of the Pedal People worker cooperative in Northampton, MA, about waste management, human power, and the possible future of local trash collection.
If you live in the Northeast U.S., chances are your trash ends up in a 2,600-acre facility in New York State. The Seneca Meadows Landfill is one of the largest waste disposal sites in the country. It accepts trash from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In addition to solid waste management, the site recycles tires, produces methane gas for electricity, and offers a range of other services. It is one of Seneca County’s largest employers.
The Seneca Meadows Landfill is an example of growing consolidation in the waste management industry. In the last few decades, population growth and urbanization have turned garbage disposal into an industry worth billions of dollars, with large corporations like Waste Management and Republic Services, Inc. handling over half the trash in the U.S.
But in Northampton, MA, a small worker owned and run cooperative is changing how garbage is collected at the local level. In this historic settlement, it’s common to see bicyclist hauling 8-foot trailers filled with garbage bags all across town. Pedal People – a self-described “human-powered delivery and hauling service” – has been offering garbage disposal services to Northampton residents since its inception in 2002. In 2007, the organization entered a contract with the City of Northampton to collect public trash and recyclable materials.
Beyond simply using bicycles to haul things, the cooperative’s goal, according to its mission statement, is to “model the use of human power as a viable alternative to fossil fuels.”
What’s the current state of the garbage industry? Does the U.S. have a trash problem? And can human power help make waste management more efficient?
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Episode 5: Talking Trash