About The District

The District works closely with staff from the City of New Bedford and the Town of Dartmouth to promote and manage an integrated solid waste management program that prioritizes waste reduction, reuse of materials, proper recycling, and composting and anaerobic digestion of organic wastes as essential means to reduce reliance on disposal facilities and to align with MassDEP’s 2030 Solid Waste Master Plan. 

Waste disposal capacity in Massachusetts is limited, and costs associated with waste management continue to increase. Reducing the amount of waste being generated and creating sustainable systems to manage the waste streams are critical environmental and economic challenges. District staff actively work to plan programs, educate the community, advocate for responsible solid waste management, and conduct strategic planning for long-term waste management solutions.

The District owns and operates the Crapo Hill Landfill– a state-of-the-art lined facility that has been providing extremely reliable and affordable waste disposal for its member communities since opening 1995. We estimate that Crapo Hill has saved its member communities over $75 million in waste disposal costs since opening! Crapo Hill hosts a landfill gas-to-energy facility operated by CommonWealth Resource Management Corporation capable of feeding up to 3.4 MegaWatts of renewable energy to the local grid. The District works diligently to capture and beneficially reuse the landfill gas and to minimize emissions from the landfill and has advanced technology from LoCI Controls on-site to help maximize gas collection and minimize methane emissions. Crapo Hill continues to serve as a valuable asset to southeastern Massachusetts and currently has about 4 years of capacity remaining in the existing landfill cells. The District is working to design, permit, and construct an additional landfill cell within the existing landfill parcel and is developing plans for long-term waste management.