What was found?
By the end of 2003, 419 solid waste facilities had been issued permits to operate. Almost half of these (201) were municipal solid waste landfills. The study found that communities of color and low wealth were more likely to live with a landfill than other communities.
Communities with 50% people of color or more were 2.8 times more likely to have a solid waste facility than communities with less than 10% people of color .
People living in places with average (median) house values of <$60,000 were 1.5 times more likely to have a solid waste facility than people in areas with average values of $100,000 and greater.
Between 1990 and 2003, permits were issued for 207 new solid waste facilities. Among communities that did not previously have a facility, new facilities were permitted 2.7 times more often in communities with more than 50% people of color compared to communities with less than 10% people of color. New privately-owned waste facilities were more likely to be permitted in communities of color; however, the same was not true of publicly-owned facilities.