Shredder’s Broken at Vermilion Parish Landfill

When a business’ shredder breaks, it’s no problem to repair it or purchase a new one. The shredder at the Vermilion Parish landfill is broken but it’s not that simple to repair or replace it.
The shredder is 40-plus years old and has been used since the landfill opened in the 1970s. This year, because of the seven-day a week usage over 40 years, the shredder is dead.
Over the last five years, the Police Jury has been repairing it and keeping it alive on life support. Now the Police Jury must decide, do they want to spend around $1 million to repair it or purchase a new one, if they can find it, for just under $10 million.
The shredder, known as the mill at the landfill, accepts garbage such as boxes, plastics and other household items. The garbage, using a conveyer belt, is brought to another machine that shreds the material into small pieces. The shredded material is loaded into a large truck and then dumped into the landfill.
Because the garbage is shredded when it goes into the landfill, it preserves the life of the landfill.
This year, because the shredder no longer works, the garbage goes straight into the landfill. The larger garbage makes the landfill fill up faster.
Gene Sellers Sr. the
parish engineer, brought the broken shredder to the attention of the Police Jury Wednesday night.
Sellers said the life expectancy of the landfill is projected to be around 20 years with the garbage shredded. With unshredded garbage going into the landfill, Sellers told the jurors the life expectancy of the landfill is almost cut in half to around 10 to 12 years.
Sellers told the jurors just parts for the conveyer belt is over $120,000.
The engineer said it is not that simple to purchase a mill as large as the one at the landfill. Sellers said landfills in other parts of Louisiana are putting raw (unshredded) garbage into landfills.
Police Juror Mark Poché said the parish landfill does not have enough land to put raw garbage into the landfill.
Sellers advised the jurors not to look into purchasing a new mill because of the cost. He explained they can either spend a million to repair the present mill or not fix it and put raw garbage in the landfill.
Police Juror Dane Hebert wanted to know if the jury spends $1 million to repair the mill, will it last 10 more years. Sellers said yes because all of the parts that are rotten and broken will be changed.
Police Juror Allen LeMaire asked if there is land around the landfill to purchase. Sellers informed the jurors no one was selling their land to the police jury.