Read the full article by Will Atwater (NC Health News)
“On a warm July morning, Joe Suleyman — dressed in a neon vest, short sleeves and blue jeans — stood on a grassy hill in New Hanover County. White clouds drifted across a bright blue sky above a lush landscape. With water and forest in the distance, the pastoral scene could have been a county park or a quiet stretch of farmland.
But it wasn’t. Beneath the grass-covered mound lay decades of buried garbage. Suleyman was standing on a capped section of the New Hanover County Landfill, west of the city and tucked between two branches of the Cape Fear River. This mound was once an open cell where trash was dumped for years before it reached capacity and was covered and sealed.
Suleyman, director of the New Hanover County Recycling and Solid Waste Department, has overseen the landfill for more than a decade. Under his leadership, the site blends technology with environmentally focused practices to manage about 400,000 tons of waste a year from more than 240,000 residents. The goal, he said, is to protect public health and the environment.” …