The data center boom in Linn County is showing up somewhere most people don't think about: the landfill.
Trash volumes at the county's landfill rose more than 10% last fiscal year, and the man running it says he knows why. "We attributed that big increase to the large data center projects that are underway in Linn County," Joe Horaney, interim director of the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency, told Iowa Public Radio. "They generated a lot of construction and demolition debris, and so we're trying to find ways to divert that material."
For contractors working on those jobs, and for everyone else hauling C&D debris in the area, it's a sign that where waste goes, and what it costs to get rid of it, could be changing.
The numbers
The landfill took in 203,832 tons of waste in fiscal year 2026, which ended June 30, according to IPR. That's up from 181,909 tons the year before. By our math, that's an increase of about 21,900 tons, or roughly 12%.
Horaney said the agency had "hoped" to stay in the low 180,000s. "Jumping back up into the 200,000-ton range, you know, that does take away our capacity," he said. "The most valuable thing that we have is our space to handle materials."
He estimates the landfill will reach capacity in 10 to 13 years. With few options for building another facility in the county, the agency is looking to haul waste elsewhere to stretch the life of the one it has.
Who's building
Horaney said Google and QTS are behind the hyperscale projects in Cedar Rapids, and he expects the pressure to continue. Google is also working on another hyperscale project near Palo, which is in the landfill's service area too.
"These projects will be on the horizon for years to come," he said.
Volumes have spiked before. After the 2020 derecho tore through Cedar Rapids, the landfill took in more than 350,000 tons of garbage, and intake stayed elevated for years during the recovery and rebuilding, IPR reported.
Diversion efforts
The agency has worked to keep material out of the ground. It runs a wood composting facility, and it has banned cardboard from being mixed with incoming trash since 1999. It recently started rejecting loads that contain cardboard, after previously doubling the tipping fee on those loads.
Horaney said data center developers have partnered on waste diversion, but getting the message to every worker is hard. "These are giant projects that have thousands of employees working on the site with multiple languages being spoken," he said. "They're getting direction at the top, and they're working to get the message down to the everybody underneath them."
Hauling it away
Waste from Linn County could start traveling across the region by early next year. The Solid Waste Agency and the East Central Iowa Council of Governments are preparing to get quotes from other regional waste agencies and hope to pick a partner by the end of December, according to IPR.
The plan is to start by hauling 50,000 tons a year and double that later.
One possible destination is the Black Hawk County Sanitary Landfill, about 50 miles northwest. "Right now, we have extra capacity, so we can bring in additional waste without bringing on additional staff and equipment," said John Foster, administrator of the county's Solid Waste Management Commission.
Hauling costs money, though. "For residents, [there's the] potential of slightly higher prices," Horaney said. "The cost goes up just from the hauling alone, with fuel prices being so high."
Why it matters for contractors
Construction and demolition debris is part of every job's budget, and this story shows how quickly big projects can strain local disposal capacity. If Linn County starts trucking waste to other landfills, that could put upward pressure on disposal costs for everyone in the service area, not just data center builders.
The cardboard rule is the most immediate takeaway. The landfill now rejects loads mixed with cardboard, so crews need to separate it on site. Contractors should also expect more pressure to divert wood and other recyclable material, and should build sorting and recycling into jobsite plans and bids. Anyone working the Google, QTS or Palo projects should expect the agency to keep pressing for diversion on those sites.