From Trashy to Classy: Turning a Closed Landfill into a Community Asset in Cedar Rapids

Iowa isn’t known as a mountainous state. But there’s a hill in the heart of Cedar Rapids – a closed landfill known as Mount Trashmore – that looms along the Cedar River just southeast of downtown. The hill is highly visible from the vast majority of downtown Cedar Rapids, which is about 120 miles east of Des Moines.

Mount Trashmore – more formally known as Site 1 – is owned and operated by the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency. The 105-acre site still provides composting, recycling, wood recovery, and other resource recovery operations. The landfill, which takes up about 75 acres of the site, was first closed in 2007 but reopened in 2008 to accept flood-damaged material and demolition debris from a major 2008 flood in the area. The landfill closed permanently in 2013.

What do you do with a mountain of trash? While a closed landfill generally has a grass cover that puts a natural face on its not-so-natural contents, the Solid Waste Agency saw additional potential for this site. Could the closed landfill be transformed into a recreational site? Could the recycling operations be made more efficient and user friendly?

Ayres Associates has worked in the solid waste industry for decades, providing plans and designs that keep landfills functioning efficiently while being good, safe neighbors to the surrounding area. In this case solid waste experts and landscape architects from Ayres Associates worked with the Solid Waste Agency and other stakeholders to develop a Master Site Plan that went several steps further with the active resource recovery facility and the closed landfill.

Project stakeholders embraced the principles of service, efficiency, and sustainability, with site improvements designed to address deficiencies in service and operations, tap into unclaimed resources and land space, and provide expanded public access to the closed landfill cap for recreational use. Amenities were selected to strike a balance between providing additional services while not incurring expensive upfront expenditures or long-term operational costs.

Ultimately the site will feature walking and biking trails with overlook structures to provide views of Cedar Rapids and the surrounding area. Site designs will emphasize educational opportunities, family gathering areas, and theme-based events that will make this a community landmark. Resource recovery facility improvements will increase safety for users, improve operational efficiency, decrease costs for the Solid Waste Agency, and improve circulation routes to clearly designated recycling processing and drop-off areas.

Solid Waste Agency officials and other stakeholders are excited about the future of the site, with Solid Waste Executive Director Karmin McShane declaring herself “the luckiest solid waste director in the world.” (Check out the reports from television stations KCRG and KGAN.) Renderings and animations from Ayres Associates’ landscape architects and designers have helped stakeholders visualize what the site can become (you can see their work in the video that accompanies this post). It won’t happen overnight; early phases of the project will focus on upgrading the recycling operations, with trails expected to be in place in 2021.

If you have questions about landfills – open or closed – visit our Environmental Services page.