Virginia Waste-to-Energy Plant Closes, Waste Now Heading for Landfill That is Running Out of Space

A waste-to-energy plant in Portsmouth, Va. closed over the weekend, meaning the area’s trash is now set to be sent to a local landfill.

The Portsmouth plant in Southside Hampton Roads, formally known as Wheelabrator, is now closed and will be demolished. With this closure, trash is now going to be sent to the Regional Landfill in Suffolk.

The Navy built the Wheelabrator plant in 1980 to burn waste for steam energy for its shipyard. But after the Navy announced it was breaking ground on a new plant at the Norfolk Shipyard that would be powered by natural gas, the Wheelabrator announced it would have to close.

The Regional Landfill in Suffolk is projected to run out of space by 2026 but officials are looking into ways to avoid using the landfill altogether.

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