DUBUQUE, Iowa — November 12, 2026 — Linn County’s landfill could reach capacity as early as 2036, and data center construction waste is filling it faster than expected. Dubuque’s landfill, by contrast, has room to spare — and the agency that runs it has been watching Linn County’s problem for months.

The Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency operates a 170,000-plus-ton-per-year municipal solid waste landfill at 101 Airborne Road in Dubuque, along with a household hazardous materials and electronics collection center, a yard debris composting facility, and eleven recycling drop-off stations. The agency took in 173,016 tons in fiscal 2025. It is self-supported solely through user fees, with a posted tipping fee of $52 a ton.

The landfill was developed in 1976 with the intention of operating for 30 years and then closing. Property acquisitions over the last decade have given it potential capacity to the end of the century, according to the agency’s own documents, and its long-range plan provides for capacity of more than 190 years.

That stands in sharp contrast to Linn County. The landfill at 1954 County Home Road in Marion takes in about 600 tons of waste a day, and Linn County says it is filling more quickly than previously projected — it could reach capacity as early as 2036. The county’s own long-range plan, Forward 2044, puts the site’s remaining airspace through about 2038, and the solid waste agency’s own website currently counts down 12 years until the landfill is full. The agency’s original charge ends June 30, 2044, and its plan anticipates operating as a transfer station after the landfill closes.

The landfill’s trash intake rose more than 10 percent in the 2026 fiscal year, and the region’s solid waste agency attributes the jump to construction waste from the two hyperscale data center projects underway near Cedar Rapids, built by Google and QTS.

The scale of that waste is striking. The agency found garbage received increased by more than 20,000 tons, to over 200,000 tons — more than 40 million pounds of it from data center construction within a single year. And much of it was not being sorted. In a February 11, 2026 letter, Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency executive director Karmin McShane told Linn County officials that waste arriving from the data center projects was not being segregated for diversion, that a significant portion contained clean wood, cardboard, and metal, and that tonnage was trending higher. Mixed loads containing cardboard were incurring double tipping fees. Linn County responded by adding a waste management plan requirement to its data center ordinance, and the solid waste agency can now turn away large commercial loads filled with recyclable or banned materials.

Linn County’s longer-term problem is that it has nowhere else to go. Under state law, building a new landfill in Linn County currently is not possible. In February 2026, the Linn County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve an agreement with Marion, Cedar Rapids, and the solid waste agency under which Marion would consider a limited expansion — cutting a setback by 450 feet — that would extend the landfill’s life from 2036 to 2044. The agreement also calls for a new countywide governance structure for the agency and a host fee to compensate Marion. Once the landfill is full, Linn County’s trash would have to be hauled elsewhere, roughly doubling the cost per ton.

Dubuque’s solid waste agency saw this coming. In May 2025, agency administrator Ken Miller told the City of Dubuque Zoning Advisory Commission that Dubuque wants to avoid “the situation Cedar Rapids is having where they only have 10 years of capacity left and no option to expand,” and that having to truck waste to another landfill would significantly increase the cost of services for the region. The agency’s August 19, 2026 board agenda included correspondence on “Data Center Waste — Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency.”

Whether Dubuque will take in Cedar Rapids waste, and on what terms, is not yet in the agency’s posted public record: the agency’s board minutes posted on the City of Dubuque Agenda Center end September 16, 2026, and no October or November meeting record has been posted as of November 12, 2026.

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