Is there land for a future Wake County landfill? Leaders weigh the options.
Could a new landfill be in Wake County’s future?
It’s one option Wake leaders are considering as they try to figure out what to do with the county’s trash once the South Wake Landfill is full.
“We fully expected there to be no land that met our initial criteria,” said John Boyer, an environmental engineer at CDM Smith. “We were surprised to find a few spaces.”
The Wake County Board of Commissioners were briefed Monday on the initial work that CDM Smith, an engineering and construction company, has done on a county trash study.
Wake County looked for land outside municipal limits and their extraterritorial or planning jurisdiction, away from airports and water supply watersheds and with at least 400 plus contiguous acres, among other criteria. Some general areas in the southern and eastern parts of the county might have potential, according to the presentation.
“We tried to avoid developed land uses, which leaves us with not very much area left in the county,” Boyer said. “We did find a few potential areas that merit further evaluation, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
It could take another three to six months for Wake County to fully evaluate if a landfill is actually possible in any of the potential areas. The county would also have to see if properties there are for sale or have multiple owners.
No specific parcels have been identified yet, said Caroline Loop, Wake County’s deputy director of community services.
The South Wake Landfill, near the Apex and Holly Springs border, is expected to last until 2040 to 2045, but it takes many years to plan, permit and build a new landfill.
But another landfill isn’t the only option county leaders are considering.
- The county could haul its trash outside its borders. Durham, Orange and Chatham counties all send their trash to a regional landfill outside their county borders. But some of those landfills are set to reach capacity around the same time as the South Wake Landfill, though some may apply for expanding, Boyer said.
- Another option is a waste-to-energy facility, which burns trash and creates energy. These facilities are rare, with only about 2,800 plants worldwide and fewer than 100 in the United States. There are none in North Carolina, it’s more expensive than a landfill and state regulations about selling energy back are some of the challenges Wake County would have to overcome.
A life cycle assessment, a method to evaluate environmental and financial impacts, was done on three example scenarios: a new Wake County landfill, disposing trash at a regional landfill and a waste-to-energy facility.
The waste-to-energy facility has less air pollutants compared to a landfill or hauling trash to a regional landfill, but it’s more expensive, according the presentation to Wake County commissioners.
The average annual trash, recycling and yard waste cost per household is $248 in Wake County. The average would bump up slightly to $250 and $266 with a new landfill or taking trash to a regional landfall. The average annual cost would be $331 for a smaller waste-to-energy facility and $311 for a larger facility.
Wake County will launch a webpage for resident feedback in the coming weeks about how residents would like to see the trash disposed of and what factors, like reducing pollution or potential cost, matter to them.
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 6:30 AM.
