Bayview landfill to be new home for Trans-Jordan cities’ waste in few years

By Tiffany Webb | [email protected]

In approximately 10 years, the Trans-Jordan Landfill will be full. There is a solution to this issue, however, and it will be found at the Bayview Landfill. 

The Trans-Jordan Landfill is a few years away from its end of life. Luckily for the Trans-Jordan cities, however, there is already a new home for the cities’ waste when that end of life comes. Around 2024 – 2026 Trans-Jordan will start transporting waste to the Bayview Landfill. 

The Bayview Landfill is located at the south end of Utah Lake in Elberta. Construction on this landfill began in 1989. Bayview Landfill is now fully operational to other cities. Once Trans-Jordan starts using their portion, it has a potential life-span of 85 years. 

Currently, the Trans-Jordan Landfill has a new executive director,  Mark Hooyer. He introduced himself at the Nov. 1 city council meeting . He has been busy at work with many different projects at the landfill. One of those projects being the Northern Utah Environmental Resource Agency – Bayview Landfill project.

The Trans-Jordan Landfill takes waste from seven different cities in the Salt Lake Valley, including Riverton. Riverton comprises about 10 percent of the Trans-Jordan population—and with that about 15,000 tons of residential waste per year.

At this rate, combined with the waste gathered from the other six Trans-Jordan cities, Hooyer has estimated the Landfill has another eight- to 10-year life expectancy. They have a construction project that started three years ago that they plan on opening up at the first of the year. This project was creating a new waste cell at the current landfill. 

“Landfill life is hard to project,” Hoover said. “This is our secondto-last cell that we are developing right now. I can confidently tell you that we will have space at the Trans-Jordan Landfill for at least the next 10 years. Our design capacity is 15 million tons, and since 1960 through July, 9.3 million tons of waste is in place.”

In addition to the Bayview Landfill project and the excavating and lining of the new waste cell, Hooyer had another issue that he came into contact with shortly after becoming the new executive director. The issue: the number of bicycles brought to the landfill on a weekly basis. Most of these bicycles are brand new, and they would always just end up being scrapped for metal. 

Hooyer, being a cyclist by hobby, wanted more for these bikes. 

“I looked at these bikes and thought we could do better. We looked around the city and found the Bicycle Collective; they exist primarily just to rehab and to recycle these bicycles for reuse.”

The Bicycle Collective is a nonprofit organization. They not only rehab these thrown out bicycles, but they also help train interested youth from the Decker Lake Youth Detention Center on how to fix these bikes. These youth have the option of joining an eight-week mechanics program. Once they leave the facility they will then have a diploma and be certified as a mechanic in fixing bikes.  

“I think that Riverton can be happy knowing that as citizens, they are a part of this waste stream,” Hoover said. “They can be happy that this waste is going to a better use for the bicycles that have been thrown away. In small steps, we are trying to reuse things as wisely as we know how.”