Orchard Hill Sanitary Landfill provides a valuable service to families and businesses throughout our region by giving them a safe, clean and cost-effective way to dispose of solid waste. Regions without an accessible landfill end up higher disposal costs and more unsightly roadside dumping.

We’ve also been a pioneer of environmental innovation for decades. Our landfill has invested in landfill gas-to-energy technology, meaning we use gas from decomposing materials and turn it into energy that powers more than 2,000 homes and business in Southwest Michigan.

We also provide drop off service for many recyclables, helping the community limit materials that go into landfills and reducing its overall environmental footprint.

Orchard Hill is proud to provide a range of waste management services to Southwest Michigan, as well as the surround communities of Coloma, Watervliet, Hartford and St. Joseph. We’re located in the Charter Townships of Watervliet and Coloma and pay quarterly host fees to both townships. Less than 1 percent of the material collected at Orchard Hill is generated outside the State of Michigan.

Orchard Hill Landfill accepts a variety of materials for disposal. We are a permitted Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill.

That means we can accept things like:

• Household garbage
• Refuse and debris (like a basement or garage clean out)
• Construction and demolition debris
• Clean fill (like concrete, brick or soil)
• Old tires (additional charges apply for processing)
• Old appliances (No Freon-containing items)
• Brush, grass clippings, and yard trimmings (sent to compost area)

We also accept a number of materials for our single stream recycling, including:

• Food boxes
• Aluminum cans, tin or steel cans
• Plastic tubs, jars & trays (#1 – #7)
• Plastic bottles (#1 – #7)
• Glass jars & bottles
• Books (hard or paperback)
• Junk mail
• Cardboard (flatten boxes)
• Magazines & catalogs
• Newspapers & inserts
• Office paper & file folders
• Paper bags

Orchard Hill Landfill is prohibited from accepting liquids, hazardous wastes, or infectious wastes.

That means we cannot accept the following:

• Old paints or other non-hazardous liquids
• If you have old chemicals, cleaners, solvents, car batteries, used motor oil, or pesticides, then you have Household Hazardous Waste (HHW). Check with your county government for handling instructions and drop off locations.
• Items that have Danger, Warning, or Caution on the label.  A hazardous product has at least one of the following properties: Toxic, Flammable, Corrosive or Reactive.
• There are other items state law prohibits us from accepting, including yard wastes and tires.

We do not accept the following materials for recycling:

• Plastic bags
• Soilded paper
• Yard waste & wood
• Styrofoam
• Pizza boxes

We are open from 7:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturdays. We are closed Sundays. Our holiday hours may vary, so please call (269) 463-5588 if you have questions about our holiday hours.

We accept cash, check and debit/credit cards. We do not accept American Express. Commercial customers have the option of applying for a credit account. Call us at (269) 463-5588 for more information.

Orchard Hill Landfill operations started in 1976. Our operation is considered a slow fill landfill with approximately 70 years of life remaining. But think about how our world has changed since 1976, and how it may well change in the next 70 years. We used to all get newspapers, sometimes two or three, at our house and would send them to landfills. Then we recycled newspapers. Then came the internet, and we read on-line…and the number of newspapers printed were reduced, leading to less waste, additional landfill space and capacity for additional time.

As technologies and cultures shift, we expect to have less volume in our landfill, and it will be here for many, many years to come.

You can reach us on our main line at (269) 463-5588 during our hours of operation or after hours on our community relations line, (269) 254-5796.

At Orchard Hill Landfill, we pride ourselves on operating a landfill that meets or exceeds state and federal requirements. In our operations, we must comply with strict requirements put in place to protect the land, water and air of Michigan, so you can rest easy knowing your waste is being managed in the most environmentally responsible way possible.

We provide the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality with reporting monthly and receive quarterly inspections and yearly reviews.

Landfill gas is generated during the natural process of bacterial decomposition of organic material contained in municipal solid waste landfills. A number of factors influence the quantity of gas that a municipal solid waste landfill generates and the components of that gas. These factors include, but are not limited to, the types and age of the waste buried in the landfill, the quantity and types of organic compounds in the waste, and the moisture content and temperature of the waste. Temperature and moisture levels are influenced by the surrounding climate.

In the past, those gasses often bubbled up into the atmosphere. Today, we have put in place an extensive and expensive capture system to dramatically reduce landfill gas emissions.

Landfill gas is collected through an intricate series of wells, vacuum and transmission lines that remain under negative pressure pulling the gas from the cells to the destruction device. Landfill gas wells consist of perforated pipe placed within the waste and acts as a straw drawing the gas into the connection system. Each well is equipped with monitoring ports and valves located at the surface to ensure the wells continued performance.

Orchard Hill Landfill has invested heavily into the next generation landfill gas well known a caisson well, which allows for the operator of a landfill to collect gas sooner in new cells and with more area of influence as the cell ages.

Landfill gas can be an asset when it is used as a source of energy to create electricity or heat. It is classified as a medium-Btu gas with a heating value of 350 to 600 Btu per cubic foot, approximately half that of natural gas. Landfill gas can often be used in place of conventional fossil fuels in certain applications.

It is a reliable source of energy because it is generated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. By using landfill gas to produce energy, landfills can significantly reduce their emissions of methane and avoid the need to generate energy from fossil fuels, thus reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants from fossil fuel combustion.

Orchard Hill Landfill hires an outside engineering firm to sample the ground water quarterly around the site, and a third-party laboratory tests the samples. The groundwater monitoring system is made up of a series of wells that are located both inside and outside the boundaries of the landfill. We purposely remove ourselves from the process to promote transparency and eliminate the element of suspicion that any tampering may have occurred. Periodically, the Michigan Department of Environmentally Quality will do blind samples to confirm the test results.

Orchard Hill Landfill is currently operating a state of the art Subtitle D facility. Modern Subtitle D landfills are impressive engineering structures that offer protection to the natural environment while providing a vital service to governments, businesses and residents. They are managed and operated meticulously, providing a safe and effective option for their community’s waste.

Orchard Hill uses liners to prevent contamination between the waste and the surrounding environment, especially groundwater. The bottom liners separate and prevent the buried waste from coming in contact with underlying natural soils and groundwater. The liner is constructed using durable, puncture-resistant synthetic plastic HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) 60 mils thick.

Waste that is placed in the landfill is required to be covered daily with either six inches of compacted soil or an alternative daily cover. Orchard Hill Landfill successfully uses both of these methods for covering waste.

Covering is performed in order to isolate the waste from creating litter and vector issues as well as to control odors. When a section of the landfill is finished or filled to capacity, it is permanently covered with a combination of a layer of polyethylene plastic, compacted soil and a layer of topsoil that will support growth of vegetation to prevent erosion.

We are ready to address concerns brought to our attention at any time. The best way to report an issue is to contact us immediately via our community relations line, (269) 254-5796.