Mifflin County originally adopted its Municipal Waste Management Plan in 1991. The Pennsylvania Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling and Waste Reduction Act of 1988 (Act 101) requires that county municipal waste management plans be updated every ten years. Therefore, in 1997, the process of updating Mifflin County's plan was initiated. The plan update was authorized by the Mifflin County Board of Commissioners in 1998.
The goal of the Municipal Waste Management Plan is to ensure waste disposal capacity for the County over a period of ten years, as well as to define the required solid waste management systems. The updated plan was adopted by the Mifflin County Commissioners on February 20, 2003. The plan was approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on March 21, 2003.