The amount of waste being generated in the United States has been steadily increasing over the last 20 years at an average rate of about 10% per year. Waste generated in the United States increased from approximately 293 million tons in 1990 to 483 million tons in 2002.

Historically, waste transportation and disposal has been a local business in which waste has been transported principally by trucks from generation points to landfills or incinerators relatively close by.

While the volume of waste being generated continues to grow, nearby disposal options are reaching, or have reached, full capacity with diminishing opportunities for expansion or siting of new facilities.

The result is that an enormous waste market, concentrated in the Northeast, must depend on a highly fragmented, increasingly regulated and ever more costly trucking system to move this waste longer distances.

At the same time, available Midwest disposal is reachable, but only by long-haul trucking or rail. TransLoad believes rail will be the most economical solution in the near term.

Cost to communities:

• Air pollution caused by trucks is nearly 5 times that for rail transport
• Truck accidents per ton-mile are as much as 30 times more than that for rail transport

The most serious concern communities (and regulators) cite in opposing local siting of waste facilities is their apprehension to increased truck traffic, which is ameliorated substantially by use of rail.

It is clear that long-haul shipping costs per-ton-mile by rail are considerably less expensive than by truck in connection with bulk commodities that move in large, continuous volumes.

In addition, the use of rail reduces:

• Costly emissions
• Accidents
• Road wear-and-tear

A single railcar can carry as much as 100 tons of waste versus only 22 tons per long-haul truck.

These benefits of rail speak directly to greater community acceptance of a rail alternative.