Estimates of the solid waste generated per person in Illinois range from 4.7 to 7 pounds per day. Household and municipal waste amounts have risen generally since 1988, peaking in 1991. Illinois is very dependent on landfills for the disposal of the approximately twelve million tons of solid waste generated annually in recent years. The Illinois Solid Waste Management Act of 1986 was intended to reduce that dependence on land disposal. Over the past 25 years the risk of contamination to Illinois land and groundwater by operating landfills has been steadily reduced, but the risk from both past and present landfills remains.
Illinois regulations governing landfills are complex.
By 1992 only 106 solid waste landfills were operating in Illinois, and by 1993 the number had dwindled to 64. The dramatic drop in the number of solid waste landfills in the state is thought to have been induced in part by economies of scale, since only larger landfills generate enough in fees to pay for the pollution controls now required of them. Though fewer in number, Illinois sanitary landfills are getting larger, so that net capacity statewide actually increased since the mid-1980s. Transition regulations require the disposal of some wastes by means other than landfilling over the short term, while recycling and waste prevention are expected, over the long term, to cause waste streams to dwindle further. Because of such diversions, the shortages of landfill space predicted to occur in the early 1990s have not occurred.