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Small wonder the City Council seems more eager these days to discuss a new swim center than an old landfill.

Talking trash is neither as much fun nor as easy.

But the question of where garbage goes and for how much is important, and will affect the lifestyles and pocketbooks here for decades to come.

We need to get this right.

To its credit, the City Council has voted to ask cogent questions about household garbage disposal. But at the same time, the council chose to avoid the most obvious one: the costs and implications of reopening the White Street Landfill.

The transfer station involves trucking the waste to a central location at Chimney Rock and Burnt Poplar roads, where it is then shipped, for a fee, to a Montgomery County landfill.

The council voted to close the local White Street Landfill to household waste in 2006.

A tough issue

The council's reluctance to at least review the wisdom of that choice is not surprising. The landfill issue is divisive and politically charged.

And this is an election year.

Residents near the landfill have complained for years about the smell and the foraging birds and rodents they say it attracts. They also have alleged that it posed a health hazard.

They also say their part of town, which is majority African American, has been forced to endure the unpleasantness of not only the landfill on one end of their northeast Greensboro community but a sewage treatment plant on the other.

The city needs to be sensitive to such suspicions. But history does not confirm them.

The area nearest the landfill was predominantly white until the early 1970s. The landfill opened in 1940. Further, some of the houses nearest the landfill weren't built until 1990.

Broken promises

Yet here's the rub: Previous councils have voted on two occasions to close the landfill. In 2001, the council voted to close the landfill by 2008.

And in 2006, the council voted to end the disposal of household garbage there.

Does the city risk the appearance of breaking a promise?

Two alternatives often discussed are using new technology to burn or recycle waste or creating a regional landfill for the county or the Triad. But the new technology remains much more expensive and a regional landfill lacks willing partners. At least for now.

High Point, Winston-Salem and Rockingham County don't have the need for additional capacity that Greensboro faces. "They don't have our solid waste issues," city Environmental Services Director Jeryl Covington said last week.

Back to square one

That begs the White Street question, which City Councilman Mike Barber has raised repeatedly.

Barber also has floated the idea of channeling at least some of the city's household garbage back to White Street to save money. The city is contractually obligated to ship a minimum of 60,000 tons of garbage to Montgomery County.

Barber's ideas thus far have gained little traction. "I'm dealing with people who have no interest in facts, logic and common sense," Barber said last week.

But cost is particularly pertinent given the ongoing economic downturn and tightening city budgets. In terms of pure dollars and cents, maintaining and expanding the White Street facility remains the least costly option.

Between July 1, 2008, and May 31 of this year, the city spent $7.67 million using the transfer station method. City staff have reported that the city could save $2.9 million a year by using White Street instead.

The council knew this all along. A 2001 consultant's report projected the White Street option as costing between $3.60 and $4.30 per household versus $9.40 to $13.30 for "out-of-county disposal" and $26 to $31 for burning and recycling.

Further, there is ample room to expand in that area, mostly on land where development is sparse.

Expansion would buy time for even longer-term regional and technological solutions.

The city could be seen as breaking its word to northeast Greensboro by revisiting the landfill discussion. But which option serves the greater good?

And in attempts to bury this issue in hopes that it will go away, the council only keeps it alive.

It will continue to resurface until it is discussed honestly and completely on the basis of the facts and hard numbers, not myths and misperceptions.

Put all of the facts on the table, and revisit all of the options. Ask everything that needs asking, while there is time, especially the hardest questions.