But the changes are not dramatic. Just a small number of landfills have installed gas-recovery system. Landfill mining remains a peripheral practice, with just six landfill-mining projects under way in the United States. Talk of using waste as a fuel or as a biochemical feedstock keep surfacing, but the talk has not translated into major investments in these new technologies. Even the implications of the Era of Consolidation turned out to overstate the transformation of the waste industry.
Competition remains robust, though, as in the past, some firms dominate individual markets.
Yes, consolidations occurred in the 1990s, but the waste management industry was still a competitive one. First, economics is a powerful driver behind waste-management decision making. Many of the prognostications in the Diversion Decade sprang more from hopes than from careful analysis. Folks wanted to see the demise, or at least the atrophying of landfills result from a new recycling ethic. But land in many areas remains relatively cheap.