New Destination for Duluth-Area Trash, Prices To Go Up

DULUTH, Minn. – Today the St. Louis County Commission voted to have local trash sent to the Virginia Landfill.

They voted on a contract with WLSSD/Resource Renew.

The Moccasin Mike landfill in Superior where Resource Renew currently sends its garbage is closing next year.

The vote will allow WLSSD/Resource Renew to dispose of its municipal solid waste at the Saint Louis County Regional Landfill in Virginia starting next summer.

Director of Environmental Services for St. Louis County David Fink say this can be a long term solution, “We have at least 50-years of capacity at that faculty with a state of the art treatment faculty – to be the most environmentally protective facility really in Minnesota.”

With this change, WLSSD says the average consumer will see about a 10 to 20-dollar increase in trash prices yearly.

That’s because of the travel costs increasing.

The trip of garbage from treatment facility to the landfill will jump from about 24-miles round trip to nearly 130-miles.

The WLSSD Board still needs to give its final approval at meeting slated for May 19.