Every once in a while the Lyon County Regional Landfill makes headlines as a vital service to southwestern Minnesota.

I was a full-time reporter at the Independent in 1993, when the landfill first went regional. The early 1990s were a time of big changes with regional solid waste.

Most smaller county landfills were closed down. Closing them was not as simple as just shutting the gate for the last time. Instead there was a complicated set of guidelines administered by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to ensure safe long-term status as a closed landfill.

The regional landfill became a success story. It provides a convenient way to dispose of massive amounts of solid waste.

It’s also affordable. Predictions in the late 20th century were that disposal costs could climb considerably. Although they’ve gone up over the years like everything else, it’s remained relatively stable.

The landfill goes through expansions every few years. New storage cells are created to absorb weekly shipments from garbage haulers. After 30 years, there’s still plenty of life left for the facility.

It would be great if we didn’t need a landfill, if we could somehow recycle and compost everything we use. There’s nothing like that on the horizon.

We live in a pre-packaged society that generates huge amounts of waste. Just consider the millions of food containers that are used once and then thrown out.

They take up a lot of space in garbage cans and eventually take up valuable landfill space. They have the advantages of being cheap and easy to handle. After they’re thrown away, however, they become a major part of expenses for waste disposal.

There’s very little potential to eliminate conveniences like food containers and plastic bags. We have to transport food and other goods from stores or restaurants to our homes. It requires practical containers.

Our lives would have to be very different to eliminate the need for a landfill. We’d have to be far more self-sufficient, far less dependent on consumerism.

The goal should be to do what we can, in small ways, to practice waste reduction. Almost everybody recycles. That’s a good thing. It helps to guarantee that recycled products can be used more than once.

Recycling by itself, however, is probably not enough. We also need to think in terms of being efficient with how we consume.

It includes the choices we make in the grocery store. We should just buy what we need. A substantial amount of spoiled food gets thrown out. That’s something we can avoid with good planning.

We should also try to get as much life as possible from our furniture, kitchen products, bath items and clothing. Items that are gently used can last for many years.

Styles change continually, but some things never look dated. My living room couch is a good example. It’s light brown with wood trim, a good neutral color that blends with almost anything.

It was one of the most affordable couches in the furniture store when I bought it. I was told it was a good bargain, that it could last for many years. That prediction came true.

When people invest wisely in their consumer goods, they not only conserve landfill space but also have a more favorable bottom line. It’s sustainable. It leads to a more affordable way of life, and in many ways a better way of life.

It’s often not popular to tell people to consume less. It’s almost the same as saying don’t shop, don’t spend money at businesses.

Consuming wisely is more acceptable. It might be possible to save up for a sizable purchase and then invest in something that’s new and of good quality. In the end it could lead to a winning situation for the consumer, a business and the environment.

Concern for our planet won’t go away. We have to do more than just talk about conserving our resources. We need to put the ideas into practice.

— Jim Muchlinski is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent