"Our annual intake of inert refuse is between 15,000 and 20,000 tons," said Wright. "That's well below the numbers you'll see for larger municipalities, but we also have a much smaller site to work with."

To estimate the volume of remaining space at the landfill, the city of Mandan developed a map based on a computer model of the slopes and contours at the site. "Last year we determined that we had about 1.5 million cubic yards of space for garbage. Based on our intake and the limitations of our equipment, we figured that the facility could stay open for another 20 years."

With a hard timeline on the horizon, Mandan began to seek out a new solution for trash compaction on the landfill. Part of the selection process involved conversations with other municipalities who had been involved with similar equipment searches. After gathering a number of opinions from various landfills and seeing some live demonstrations, the city decided on the BOMAG BC672RB.

"It came down to what it could offer to our particular operation," said Wright. "Among the compactors we looked at, the BOMAG noticeably outperformed the others. At that point the only remaining issue was price. We could have saved some money in the short term by bidding another wheel loader, but we felt the compactor could deliver far more value and cost benefit by allowing us to gain more air space at the landfill."