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Turning Zero Value Into Productive Zones

The Department of Park, Recreation and Tourism Resources at Michigan State University in the United States is promoting a concept that may well provide urban planners a viable option for transforming solid waste landfills into parks and recreation areas. These public spaces may subsequently "serve as the magnet for attracting housing, office and commercial development to adjacent lands - turning areas that had zero community value into productive zones for investment" according to Louis F. Twardzik, Professor Emeritus at MSU. He and his colleague Professor Gaylan Rasmussen together with Wesley Sherman, a civil engineer at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, are in the process of establishing a research and design centre at the University for the study of alternative uses for landfills once the planned capacity has been exhausted.

Their goal is to develop an integrated process, including hardware and software technologies, required to eventually include the final use of landfills into the original design, obviously greatly reducing the costs of transforming these areas into a wide range of open- space uses. This package will include not only engineering techniques, but also open-space design, environmental risk assessment, training and institution-building methods, as well as long-term management considerations. And since all communities have solid waste disposal problems, Professor Twardzik, is convinced that this technology package will generate significant international interest as it would be the first such attempt to build a research and design centre/clearing house of this nature in the United States.

IETC has an interest in this concept as a part of the solution to integrated solid waste management planning for urban areas. As landfills are one of the most consumptive, and many times least productive, uses of urban land, developing technologies to address this issue should be of interest to many individuals. Both Twardzik and Rasmussen look forward to hearing from colleagues with interest/experience in this field and can be contacted at: Michigan State University, Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Resources, 131 Natural Resources Building, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1222, USA. Tel: +(1-517) 353-5190; Fax: +(1-517) 4323597;

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