Air space is important because every landfill is licensed to rise to just a certain height.  The more trash that can be placed under that height limit, the longer the landfill site will last.  But preserving air space can be easier said than done. The rate at which trash is generated in the United States is staggering. Some statistics estimate the total at more than 200 million tons of garbage produced in the country each year, putting the average generated per person at four pounds every single day. While much of this waste is recycled or burned, well more than half of it must be buried in landfills.

The 325,000 residents of Charleston County, S.C. don't waver far from the national average when it comes to trash production. As the destination for all of the county's waste, the Bees Ferry Road Landfill takes in more than 250,000 tons annually in municipal waste, compost, and construction and demolition waste.

Open since the late 1970s, Bees Ferry is operated by Charleston County on a 300-acre piece of land approximately 10 miles inland from the Atlantic coast. Like any landfill, Bees Ferry has two primary enemies in its battle to preserve air space on the site. The first is the unrelenting daily influx of waste. The second is that trash already buried breaks down very slowly - sometimes not at all - and will not be disappearing anytime soon.

While these obstacles and certain undeniable laws of science make it impossible for a landfill to last indefinitely, those sites that maximize their available space can operate for longer periods of time before their respective municipalities must look to break ground at new locations.