Carroll County officials are working to develop more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally safe ways to dispose of the county’s trash.

In September 2022, Carroll County commissioners purchased 326 acres adjacent to the Northern Landfill in Westminster for about $13 million. During their weekly meeting Thursday, they were briefed on plans to improve operations at the now-526-acre Carroll County Resource Recovery Park & Northern Landfill on Baltimore Boulevard.

The county has expanded the landfill to develop more sustainable and environmentally safe options to dispose of the county’s trash for residents and businesses, said Cliff Engle, chief of Carroll County’s Bureau of Solid Waste.

Plans for future improvements include:

Additional capacity.

Transfer station for recyclables and trash.

Consolidated area for residents to dump trash.

Landfill upgrades, such as a new entrance, roads, maintenance shop and scale house.

Resource recovery park for yard waste, organics recycling and construction and demolition materials.

Possible solar field.

Environmental assessment studies on the property have been completed, which included locating wetlands, deep slopes, water resource conservation easements, forest conservation easements and an existing rubble area that could be an obstacle to future development.

The county is now engaged in engineering, design and permitting. State permits are expected to be complete in 2027. Federal permits will be also needed, along with a permit to construct a new entrance to the landfill.

“All of those studies brings us to where can we go as far as potential development areas,” Engle said.

Cost estimates are currently being developed, he added. Public hearings and special websites to communicate updates are also under consideration. In fiscal 2023, the county disposed of 137,000 tons of trash at the Northern Landfill. The county also recycled 19,000 tons of materials, including household and commercial recyclables, yard waste, and scrap tires during that year.

In August 2023, the county agreed to continue its more than three-decade contract for trash and recycling services with the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority — an independent state agency that assists seven counties plus Baltimore City with waste management. The commissioners unanimously approved the annual contract with the authority in the amount of $180,966.26, which is about a 3.95% increase over the fiscal 2023 membership fee, according to Engle. Due to rising costs to process trash at the Northern Landfill, the tipping fees charged to dump garbage there increased on July 1, 2023. Tipping fees are paid by those who dispose of waste, based on weight.

The cost of dumping general household trash increased from $65 per ton to $66 per ton, according to a county news release.