Florida Home to 20% of America’s Largest Landfills
The United States produces hundreds of millions of tons of solid waste yearly. With so much garbage made by Americans, you might be wondering where it all goes.
The Fresno garbage dump in California opened in 1937 and is considered the first American landfill. Since then, other landfills have grown exceptionally in size.
Visual Capitalist ranks which of America’s landfills are the ten largest. Can you guess which two Florida landfills made the cut?
Measuring America’s Landfills
Visual Capitalist used 2023 data from Statista to determine which landfills in the U.S. are the largest. They measured and ranked the landfills according to their design capacity.
The results are as follows, starting with the biggest landfill.
1. Apex Regional, Nevada
Landfill capacity potential: 995 million tons
2. ECDC Environmental, Utah
Landfill capacity potential: 482 million tons
3. Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site, Colorado
Landfill capacity potential: 396 million tons
4. Columbia Ridge, Oregon
Landfill capacity potential: 393 million tons
5. Lockwood Regional, Nevada
Landfill capacity potential: 346 million tons
6. Okeechobee, Florida
Landfill capacity potential: 242 million tons
7. Butterfield Station, Arizona
Landfill capacity potential: 226 million tons
8. Roosevelt Regional MSW, Washington
Landfill capacity potential: 219 million tons
9. Wasatch Regional, Utah
Landfill capacity potential: 203 million tons
Note: Wasatch Regional ties with Hillsborough County.
10. Hillsborough County, Florida
Landfill capacity potential: 203 million tons
Las Vegas Landfill Impact
The largest landfill in the U.S. and the world is the 2,200-acre Apex Regional in Las Vegas, Nevada. Every hour, 300 tons of garbage is dumped there. The site opened in 1993 and is designed to be operational for up to 250 years.
While the Las Vegas landfill is the largest, it’s taking steps to improve its environmental impact. Beginning in 2012, the landfill began converting gas to power. As of 2022, it powers approximately 11,000 Nevada homes. When a part of the landfill reaches capacity, it’s covered up, and a gas well is installed to produce energy.
Waste Production Worldwide
As of 2024, approximately 3,800 tons of waste is produced and collected worldwide every minute. Experts say that the amount of global waste will see a 70% increase over the next 30 years, from about 2 billion tons to 3.4 billion tons. The U.S. is responsible for the most waste per capita than any other country, followed by Canada and Australia.
Outside of the U.S., the largest landfills are in Mexico and China. The second largest in the world is Bordo Poniente, located in Mexico City, with a size of about 900 acres. The third largest is Laogang in China, which is about 900 acres.
How to Minimize Waste
With so much waste produced daily, experts encourage people to reduce garbage output. One simple way to reduce waste is to compost organic trash at home. Leaving cut grass clippings on the lawn after mowing instead of bagging it up can also cut waste and provide nutrients to the soil.
In the office, you can change the printer settings to print paper on both sides and use smaller font sizes to save on supplies.
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