Choose Recycling Over Landfilling
September 18, 2009 – 12:16 am by MarinaHanes
When you delve into the world of recycling and understanding the history behind it, you can gain a completely different perspective on landfills. Just like anything in life, there is always a positive and negative side, and landfilling is an interesting process.
Modern landfills are significantly different from the landfills in the 80s and mid 80s. Unfortunately, before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came to existence in 1970, landfills were simply holes in the ground without liners where trash was dumped. There wasn’t any planning or forethought in regard to the potential pollution or contamination of groundwater. Not only was the environment being damaged, people were developing cancer. Of course there was nothing that could be done to fix this mistake, but at least the EPA was able to create regulations to decrease such catastrophic mistakes.
Now non-permeable liners are put down to prevent contamination into groundwater. Methane gas is given off as the trash degrades, and this gas is collected and monitored by candy cane looking wells since it is an explosive gas. Although this can be a waste gas, it’s usually recycled to generate energy for some parts of the landfill processes. A mixture made from water and trash called leachate is produced and sent to a water treatment plant for treatment. To prevent disease-carrying animals such as rodents from coming into the landfill for food, a daily cover is put over top of the landfill. This is important since most landfills are located near residential areas. Although this liner keeps animals away, it doesn’t benefit the biodegradation process.
The aerobic process needs sunlight, oxygen and water to create bacteria, which eats the garbage. However, the cover blocks this needed sunlight, oxygen and water from reaching the garbage and inhibits biodegradation. In a 1970 garbage product, landfills were excavated and a newspaper from the Great Depression was found. This newspaper didn’t degrade at all, because it was still in tact and readable. A hot dog in its original wrapping was also uncovered from the late 80s, so it had lasted in the landfill for 19 years.
These examples just show how recycling and reducing your waste is so important, because there is no telling how long your waste will be hanging around for.
Tags: landfill process, recycling, why recycle