Allied Waste Industries, Inc. is applying to the Environmental Protection Agency to tear down buildings in its current landfill to make more room before the landfill runs out of space.

“Right now we are just about out of air space,” said Larry Shilling, district manager for Allied Waste.

Allied plans to file an application with the EPA on March 20, which has up to a 180-day review period. Shilling said his company hopes to speed up the process because the landfill may run out of space as soon as early May, depending on the trash volume.

If the current landfill does run out of space before the EPA approves the application, the landfill will have to close and the county will have to do direct hauling to the next closest landfill, Shilling said. Direct hauling is expensive and would lead to a substantial increase in collection rates.

To make more space in the landfill, Allied is proposing to tear down the buildings at the landfill to make more space for disposal. Moving the buildings will allow enough room for about three to six more years of waste disposal, Shilling said.

In the future, Allied plans to have a transfer station for Coles County where trash is stored in a large building and shipped to another landfill within one day’s time, he said.

The County Board approved a host agreement with Allied last month so that Allied can begin finding a local hauling company to sign on for the transfer station. Allied will likely sign a hauling company by June, Shilling said.

The transfer station might slightly raise collection rates, Shilling said, but not nearly as much as if the county had to do direct hauling.