Kansas

Statistics and Rankings

The 16th Nationwide Survey of MSW Management in the United States found that, in 2006, Kansas had an estimated 4,089,591 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation, placing it 30th in a survey of the 50 states and the capital district. Based on the 2006 population of 2,755,817, an estimated 1.48 tons of MSW were generated per person per year (ranking 12th). Kansas landfilled 3,271,773 tons (ranking 24th) in the state's 52 landfills. The state exported 140,939 tons of MSW, and the import tonnage was 770,650 tons. Kansas was ranked eighth out of 44 respondent states for number of landfills, but it had no plans to increase its landfill capacity and no waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities. Only whole tires were reported as being banned from Kansas landfills. It recycled 817,818 tons of MSW, placing Kansas 26th in the ranking of recycled MSW tonnage.

The historic disposal methods of pig-feeding and open burning ceased between the 1950s and 1970s as U.S. life became more urban and trash became an increasing problem in Kansas as well as elsewhere. The first statewide solid waste regulations were not passed until 1970 in Kansas, although the same is true for many other states. The nationwide garbage crisis was also felt in Kansas with a 1969 US News & World Report article describing 770 paper cups, 730 cigarette cartons, 590 beer cans, 100 whiskey bottles, and 90 beer cartons being found dumped on one mile of a two-lane Kansas highway.

Quindaro

Situated on the south bank of the Missouri River in Wyandotte County in what is now Kansas City, Quindaro was a short-lived (1856–62) community established after the Kansas-Nebraska Act to create a free-state port of entry into Kansas. Originally [Page 456]Wyandot Indian land, the town's founders were former members of the tribe who chose to remain in the area and become U.S. citizens when the tribe disbanded. The town was named after one founder's wife, Nancy Quindaro Brown Guthrie, whose husband was a European American adopted into the tribe on marriage.

Close to the Missouri River, the town was an active part of the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to freedom. A boomtown with a population that peaked at 600, the town's fortunes declined when a nationwide economic depression hit and efforts to attract a railway line to the town failed. Much of the male population left to fight in the U.S. Civil War, and those who remained continued farming while the town drifted into abandonment. Freed African American slaves settled in the area after the war and buildings of Freedman University (later Western University) occupied the bluff over the site of the old town. These buildings would also become ruined within a century.

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