Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on landfilling and recycling in the city of Fargo, North Dakota, USA

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted different aspects of human lifestyle, including waste generation and management. The landfilled and recycled waste volume from the City of Fargo’s annual solid waste report between 2019 and 2021 was critically analyzed to understand these impacts. The analysis showed a 4.5% increase in the residential waste volume in 2020 compared to 2019 and 2021, suggesting a pandemic-induced lockdown effect. The monthly residential waste volume was approximately 5–15% greater during the mandatory quarantine period (April – November 2020) than in 2019 and 2021. Commercial waste volume decreased by 12% during 2020 and then sharply increased in 2021 as commercial facilities reopened. The total recycling volume increased slightly by 2.5% in 2020 compared to 2019 and 2021. Cardboard recycling showed a 5.8% increase in 2020 from 2019 and a 13% increase in 2021 compared to 2020. This was presumably caused by the reliance on online shopping during the pandemic and becoming habituated to online shopping. The COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly impact other classes of recycled waste volumes. In summary, COVID-19 affected landfilling and recycling in different capacities in the City of Fargo. The data will contribute to the global understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on solid waste management practices.

Implications: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted waste generation and management. In Fargo, USA, the monthly residential waste volume increased by up to 15% during the mandatory quarantine period in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 and 2021. Conversely, the monthly commercial waste volume decreased during the mandatory quarantine period in 2020. The commercial waste volume increased in 2021 as commercial activities became normal. The cardboard recycling increased significantly because people became used to online shopping during the lockdown, and the practice continues. The findings will contribute to the global understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on solid waste management practices.

Introduction

Municipal solid waste management systems are designed to handle a regular and continuous flow of waste with occasional and seasonal variations in volume (Pinto et al. 2022; Roy et al. 2021). These services can be disturbed by natural events such as pandemics which can alter waste generation and challenge waste collection, storage, treatment, and disposal (Irfan et al. 2022; Sarmento et al. 2022; Singh et al. 2022a). The COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020 challenged municipal waste management by causing a drastic change in waste generation and collection. China’s municipal solid waste volume decreased by 30% during the pandemic-related lockdowns, whereas the United Kingdom saw a significant increase in residential waste (ADEPT 2020; Chinese Ministry of Commerce 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic has produced enormous plastic waste, including single-use gloves, masks, and other personal protective equipment (Dey et al. 2023; Singh et al. 2022b). For instance, plastic waste volume increased by approximately 37% in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic (Aurpa, Hossain, and Islam 2022). The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) reported a 20% nationwide increase in residential waste volume during the beginning of the pandemic, with rates exceeding 30% in some places (SWANA 2022). In New York City, domestic waste increased by 5–30%, while commercial and industrial waste decreased by 50% (Waste Advantage 2020). Consequently, the early pandemic months saw a 45% rise in recycling activities in the United States, according to reports from Ohio, South Carolina, Arizona, and New York (ISWA 2022; Staub 2020a). In contrast, some states like Oregon, California, and Michigan reduced their typical 45% recycling rates during the pandemic to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission (Staub 2020b). The City of New York and Pennsylvania stopped collecting yard waste for composting and strongly recommended landfilling of yard waste (Kaufman and Chasan 2022).

In the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers began speculating and posing questions about the pandemic’s impact on waste generation, collection, and management (Naughton 2020; Siming, Sonne, and Ok 2020). A number of studies looked at various facets of the pandemic’s impact on global solid waste management (Kulkarni and Anantharama 2020 ; Roy et al. 2021; Torkashvand et al. 2021; Yousefi et al. 2021). The objective of the study is to elucidate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on landfilling and recycling in the City of Fargo (46.8772° N, 96.7898° W), North Dakota, USA using the city’s solid waste data from 2019 to 2021. The data depicts that approximately 80% of the landfilled waste came from the City of Fargo and the remaining 20% came from outside of the city. The outcome of this study will be helpful in understanding the impact of the pandemic on solid waste management and provide insight on potential management strategies in the event of future pandemics.

Materials and methods

This study analyzed the 2019 to 2021 monthly volume data from the Fargo Solid Waste Division’s annual report to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on solid waste generation, landfilling, and recycling (NDDEQ 2022a, 2022b, 2022c). The following definition of different waste types were used in the city of Fargo’s solid waste report.

Residential collection of waste. Residential collection of waste is a service that consists of the collection of solid waste generated from single-family residences in Fargo. In Fargo, a single family can choose a small (48-gallon), medium (64-gallon), or large (96-gallon) garbage cart that is provided by the city. Commercial collection of waste. Commercial collection of refuse is a service of collecting waste from multi-family units, small to large business groups, park areas, schools, and city facilities in Fargo. This collection service is accomplished by dumpsters and rear road trucks. Roll-off collection of waste. Roll-off collection service consists of collecting waste from business groups and construction industries by using different sizes (20,30, and 42 cubic yards) of roll-off containers. To maintain this service, Fargo’s “solid waste division” provides licensed private haulers to collect waste in the city regularly. Industrial Waste. Industrial collection of waste is a service of collecting unwanted or residual materials which result from industrial operations. Also classified with industrial waste is manufacturing waste, which is a service of collecting waste from different manufacturing factories such as food manufacturing, print, and publishing. Inert Waste. Inert waste consists of collecting noncombustible, non-hazardous, non-reactive waste which cannot be degraded in landfills easily. Recycling. Yard waste composting and wood waste reusing is the top priority for reducing solid waste volume in Fargo landfills. In addition to these, voluntary separation of recyclables by the citizens has been implemented to reduce the volume of solid waste in landfills. The city has opened a drop site service for collecting cardboard, newspapers, metals, plastics, and glasses as recyclables.

One-way ANOVA (significance level at p < .05) analysis was used to determine whether the changes were significant over the study period, thereby, pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic impact. We used “waste generation” and “waste collection” interchangeably in this study as the City of Fargo has 100% collection rate of the generated waste. Due to a shortage of data, we could not further extend the statistical analysis.

Results and discussion

Impacts of COVID-19 on landfilled waste volume

The total landfilled solid waste volume in 2020 was 235,454 tons, approximately 4.5% greater than that recorded for 2019 and 2021 (Figure 1). The changes in the trend of total landfilling volume during the COVID-19 pandemic have been reported in different regions. For instance, Delhi, Bali, and New York landfilled 6%, 5% and 3.3% respectively more municipal solid waste during the COVID-19 pandemic than during the regular period (Ganguly and Chakraborty 2021; Staub 2020a). Conversely, monthly landfilling volume decreased by 10%, 4%, and 6% in Vermont, Virginia, and California during the COVID-19 pandemic (Table S1). The annual volume of landfilled residential waste of 22,322 tons in 2020 was approximately 7% greater than in 2019 and 2021 (Figure 1). The monthly residential waste collection (by volume) during the mandatory quarantine period (April – November 2020, Table S2) was 5–15% greater compared to the same periods in 2019 and 2021 (Figure S1). Similarly, the total residential waste increased by 15% in Ontario, Canada, and 110% in Tokyo during the COVID-19 pandemic (Waste Recycling 2020). The monthly commercial waste generation trends were significantly different (i.e., P < .05) in Fargo when compared among 2019, 2020, and 2021 (Figure S1). The yearly volume of commercial solid waste decreased by 12% in 2020 compared to 2019 from 12,767 tons to 11,200 tons (Figures 1 and 2). Similarly, the total commercial waste generation decreased to 57% of the normal levels in Tokyo, Japan during COVID-19 (UNEP 2020). People stayed at home and businesses were closed during the mandatory quarantine periods (Table S2), and that might have resulted in increased household waste volume and decreased commercial waste generation (Forlani 2022; Zhou et al. 2022). The yearly commercial solid waste volume increased by 24% in 2021 compared to 2020. Interestingly, the monthly commercial waste volume showed a sharp increase of 40% from January 2021 to December 2021, exceeding the residential generation by 550 tons in December 2021 (Figure 2). This is clearly due to the re-opening of most businesses, people attending work in person, travel, leisure activities, and other outside the home engagements that were halted during the pandemic (Knowledge Hub 2021; Richter et al. 2021a; Sharma et al. 2020). The volume of Primary Haulers’ waste (i.e., waste collected from curbsides by hydraulic trucks) decreased by 8% in 2020 compared to 2019 and increased by 9% in 2021 from 2020 (Figures 1 and S1). Similar to our findings, the curbside collection of waste decreased by 11.5% in Regina, Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (Richter et al. 2021a). This decline in 2020 happened due to the less waste generation at town curbsides as all types of businesses, including offices, firms, educational institutions, restaurants, and shops remained closed, and people stayed at home during the lockdown in 2020 (Arumugam et al. 2021; Richter et al. 2021a, 2021b). The landfilled volume of other waste types, such as industrial and inert waste, were not significantly different over the three years. (i.e., P > 0.05) (Figure S2).

Figure 1. Annual landfilled waste volume for major waste classes from 2019 to 2021 in the city of Fargo, North Dakota (SW – Solid Waste).

Figure 2. Monthly commercial, residential, and total landfilled solid waste volume profile from 2019 to 2021 in the city of Fargo, North Dakota.

Impacts of COVID-19 on recycling volume

The City of Fargo recycles approximately 25% of the generated solid waste. The total recycling volume in 2020 was 78,915 tons, approximately 2.5% greater than 2019 and 2021 (Figure 3a). Similar increasing trends in recycling in 2020 compared to 2019 were observed in other parts of the world. For instance, the city of Oxford, United Kingdom, recycled approximately 9% more in 2020, and Norway recycled about 1% more waste in 2020 compared to 2019 (Rutledge 2022; Sarkodie and Owusu 2021). This total recycled volume in Fargo comprised of wood waste, yard waste, cardboard, sludge, metal, and plastics. Fargo’s recycled waste volume showed seasonality, with more recycling in summer months compared to winter months. Total recycled waste volume was 3,000–5,000 tons in January and February but reached approximately 8,000–9,000 tons in June and July throughout the study period (Figure 3a). Of the different recyclables, monthly cardboard recycling volume profiles were significantly different (P < .05) from one year to another during the study period (Figure 3b). The recycled cardboard volume increased by 18% in 2021 compared to 2019 (Figure 3b). This increase was 5.8% in 2020 from 2019 and 13% in 2021 from 2020 (Figure 3b). This increase was similar to the 3.6% average cardboard recycling rate increase in the USA in 2020 compared to 2019 (AF&PA 2020) The increased cardboard recycling volume in 2020 was caused by people predominantly relying on online shopping to reduce the transmission risk of COVID-19 (Jensen et al. 2021; Rattner 2022). This online shopping trend also contributed to the increased cardboard volume in 2021 as people enjoyed its conveniences (Choudhury 2022). Yard waste and wastewater sludge recycling showed seasonality, with yard waste reaching the highest volume in fall and wastewater sludge in summer within the study period (Figure S3). In terms of plastics, metals, bio-grit, and newspaper recycling, there were no significant differences (P > .05) in monthly recycling volume during 2019–2021 (Figures S3 and S4).

Figure 3. Monthly and yearly recycling volume in the city of Fargo during 2019–2021: (a)total recycled materials; and (b) recycled cardboard.

Conclusion

Fargo’s solid waste data (2019 – 2021) demonstrate the specific impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The monthly residential waste volume increased during the mandatory quarantine period in 2020 (April – November) compared to the same period in 2019 and 2021. Conversely, the monthly commercial waste collection volume decreased during the mandatory quarantine period in 2020. The commercial waste volume increased in 2021 as commercial activities became normal. While the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly impact the total recycling volume, cardboard recycling increased in 2021 because people became used to online shopping during the lockdown, and the practice continues. This study will add to the knowledge of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on solid waste management and help develop strategies to manage solid waste disposal and treatment during future pandemics.

Supporting information

Comparison of landfilled waste volume before and after COVID-19 in different locations, COVID-19 restrictions in North Dakota, monthly landfilled volume profile of residential, commercial, primary haulers, industrial, and inert waste, and monthly recycled waste volume of yard waste, sludge, biosolids, plastic, biogrits, news prints, and metals, and the list of acronyms.

Acknowledgment

Biraj Saha and Md Tanbir Khan were supported by the Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Department at North Dakota State University. We are grateful to Scott Olson and Terry Ludlum from the City of Fargo Division of Solid Waste for their help with the data and relevant information.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data will be made available on request.

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this paper can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2023.2221649

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Biraj Saha

Biraj Saha is a graduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University. His research is on PFAS in solid waste.

Md Tanbir Khan

Md Tanbir Khan is a graduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University. His research is on plastics degradation in landfills.

Malachi Graupman

Malachi Graupman is a graduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University.

Hafiz Muhammad Umer Aslam

Hafiz Muhammad Umer Aslam is a graduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University.

Anand K. Gupta

Anand K. Gupta is a graduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University.

Grant Helmin

Grant Helmin is an undergraduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University.

Mitchell Larson

Mitchell Larson is an undergraduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University.

Kylie Chard

Kylie Chard is an undergraduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University.

Bailey Hayes

Bailey Hayes is an undergraduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University.

Rachel Anderson

Rachel Anderson is an undergraduate researcher in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University.

Stephanie C. Bolyard

Stephanie C. Bolyard is a Senior Engineer to the Assistant Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). She works to support, set, and guide activities that consistently articulate DEQ’s mission and implement the strategic plan.

Kelly A. Rusch

Kelly A. Rusch is a professor in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University. Her research is on biofuel production from algal biomass.

Achintya N. Bezbaruah

Achintya N. Bezbaruah is a professor in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University. His research is in the area of environmental nanotechnology.

Syeed Md Iskander

Syeed Md Iskander is an assistant professor in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University. His research is in the area of solid waste management.