Refuse authority now using incinerator ash as daily cover, boosting revenue

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

For the past week, the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority has been covering deposited waste with a new medium – incinerator ash from the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority.

“We have a contract for three loads of LCSWMA ash a day,” Skip Garner, GLRA executive director, said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “We’ve had a few challenges, but we believe the bugs have been worked out for us to use the ash.”

Those challenges included a load with some waste not completely burned and another containing metal. Neither met GLRA’s criteria for daily cover, so the materials were landfilled, Garner told the board.

“We called, and LCSWMA was accommodating; they want to work with us, so we’re working through the details,” Garner added.

GLRA had to submit a minor modification to its permit to the Department of Environmental Protection to allow the use of municipal solid waste ash as daily cover. Approval of that modification came on April 23, Garner said in his report to the board.

Landfills are required to cover waste deposited daily in order to minimize odors and litter. Previously, GLRA’s permit had specified use of clean fill, which had some costs associated with transporting and stockpiling the material.

In contrast, GLRA is receiving 60 tons of ash per day and being paid $20 per ton by LCSWMA, Garner said in an email.

GLRA saw a boost in revenues of $170,913 from the sale of carbon credits from October 2023 through June 2025. Those credits are created when the authority uses methane collected from the landfill to make electricity, Garner reported.

Garner also reported that revenues from tipping fees exceeded budget by 14% in April. Volume of waste received was 12,390 tons, which was more than 850 tons in April 2025. Garner attributed the increase to commercial and construction demolition waste.

In other business, GLRA announced a new name for its walking trail and disc golf course, the D.U.M.P. or Disc Utopia & Meadow Park, according to Morgan Hosler, staff engineer.

“We wanted the name to do two things: Highlight the recreational side of the property and reclaim the nickname of ‘the dump’ the community already uses,” Hosler said. “We decided to keep that familiar identity while tying it to the trails, course, and other recreational assets on site.”

Besides the name change, the trail now includes more options to walk into fields and woods, Hosler told the board.

GLRA employees are in the process of prepping the ground for the course. Baskets will be installed likely in the next two weeks, and the course open for play by the beginning of June, said Hosler in a telephone interview Thursday.

The board of the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority meets at 1800 Russell Road. The next meeting will be 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 2. These meetings are open to the public and do not require registration.