Burning Issue : Waste Management

However, the pipes below the lined bottom that are designed to catch leachate, which is the run off of water that passes through the waste and into the soil or underground water, doesn’t always catch all of the toxic substance. The toxins pollute lakes, streams and aquifers. The decomposition of waste also gives off methane and carbon dioxide gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect. If not properly vented, it could result in an explosion. Another disadvantage is that the landfill will stay the same size because of the improper mixture of elements for

Have you ever wondered where all the trash goes that you throw out? Most of it ends up in landfills, gets burned or ends up on the street. Landfills are the most cost-efficient ways to get rid of trash for places like the United States but at what price. When waste disintegrates in landfills and water passes through the waste, the resulting liquid is called leachate. When leachate run off encounter local rivers and lakes it can contaminate the water and destroy whole eco systems that live in these areas. Landfill gas consists of naturally occurring methane and carbon dioxide, which form inside the landfill as the waste decomposes. As the gases form, pressure builds up inside a landfill, forcing the gases to move. Some of the gases escape through

Landfills are a growing problem yet statistics claim that landfills have gone down from 8,000 landfills in the 80’s to 3,000 landfills today. While this is true, it is misleading as it failed to mention that as the years have passed, many have switched from small, local landfills to mega-landfills. Facts like these often understate the issue as landfills are a vague topic for most, needing more public attention and discussion. Landfills will take 450 years at minimum to degrade and when decomposed, turns into many toxic products. It takes up so much space while simultaneously ruining the soil for future farming use. This is important for the ever growing population where space is getting more valuable and early precautions will definitely help.

There is room for a lot of improvement in Quebec’s waste management: currently, about half of household waste is eliminated (MDDELCC, 10) which is not economically viable. To reach its sustainability goal, the province drafted the Quebec policy for waste management 2011-2015. By the end date, it aims to reduce household waste to 700kg/person and to increase the diversion rate of paper, plastic, glass and metal scraps to 70%, and of organic waste to 60% (MDDELCC, 11). An additional benefit of these propositions is the creation of hundreds of jobs (MDDELCC, 2011). The plan, albeit optimistic, is still unclear about how to effectively implement waste recovery. In 2012, 6 years after the start of the City of Montreal’s composting initiative, only 12% of organic waste was being recovered (Bruemmer, 2014). Montreal plans on building two biomethanization plants (where compost is converted into biogas), along with two composting facilities (Bruemmer, 2014). Four proposed sites have been rejected due to public opposition while an existing one closed this summer. Situated in Montreal’s Southwest borough, the latter estimates that its yearly methane offset equals 800 000m3, “which represents about 35 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is worth nearly 500 000$ in the Quebec cap-and-trade system” (Compost Montreal,

The United States has tried to solve the garbage problems for a long time. Ted Steinberg says “at first [the garbage wars] may have seemed like a simple problem, nothing that could not be solved by a fleet of tractor-trailers carrying garbage to open spaces further south and west” when New York City has faced the lack of the room for trash in the 1990s in the chapter 14 of his book Down to Earth (225). Unfortunately, the garbage has kept causing problems since around the 1940s, the postwar period. It is uneasy to solve this serious problem because several factors, such as consumerism and some relationships on the Earth, are related to each other and make the issue complicated.

The slow release from the landfill entails a dilution in time, which is hazardous. Landfills are disposal sites for waste which cannot be reused, recycled and recovered. “Waste is typically burnt at factories, but the waste which cannot be reused is taken to landfills where it is dumped”, (Spokas and Bogner, 2006: 516). Waste is taken to landfills to prevent pest infections, odour and litter. Once the waste is dumped and the landfill is to its full capacity, trained engineers build a cap out of clay and other solid materials. This is then covered with soil and other materials so that the site can be used for other things in the future such as nature conservation and agricultures. This is repeated for all sites.” Accordingly landfills are the most common form of waste disposal. “Landfills, being relatively cheaper than other treatment/disposal alternatives, are used not only by developing but also by industrialized countries, such as US, Australia, UK and Finland (Laner et al., 2012, cited in Diamantis et al., 2013:

Studies have shown that there is a real concern relating to the health risks associated with incineration but there have been no conclusive epidemiological studies to confirm this. (41), (18), (28),(31),(33)

The population has grown immensely within the last hundred years. Along with population growth is the increase of production and trash. In the later years, most people threw their trash wherever they wanted until they realized that they were killing our environment. So we evolved to having legal landfills. Unfortunately, landfills are changing surrounding areas and polluting our space. Landfills has change the earth through landforms, contaminations, and economy. Citizens can change the way that they collect and distribute trash in a few simple ways.

Now this had several problems such as producing rodents which could spread diseases. Dumps also smell very bad and leak toxic substances into the water supply. The dump had very negative impacts on ecosystems. Now people are using more landfills. At landfills, bulldozers dig holes or a trench and the garbage poured in. Each day the garbage is covered in a layer of soil. Landfills is a way to prevent odors and problems with animals. The downfall on using landfills is that their is no waterproof protection so chemicals seeping out is still a problem. Did you know that more than 20% of garbage thrown out by average Ontario households is

Landfills are made up of 6 different parts. Each of these parts are designed to address issues that may occur in a landfill. These parts include the bottom liner system, which separates trash and subsequent leachate from groundwater. The next part is the cells, which is where the trash is stored within the landfill. The storm water drainage system collects rain water that falls on the landfill. Leachate collection system is the next part which makes the landfill up. This system collects water that has percolated through the landfill itself and contains some contaminating substances. The

It is estimated that every person in the UK produced 452kg of waste in 2010. Most of this waste was sent into landfills which is unsustainable. However, there is a decreasing use of landfills and an increase in recycling. For example, in 2004 33% of waste was recycled or composted compared to 45% in 2008. Landfill is when waste is dumped into old quarries or hollows, which is cheap in the short term but not sustainable. In the UK, landfill sites produced 36% of the nation’s methane emissions; this is not sustainable because greenhouse gasses cause climate change. However, there are developing technologies which allow the gases produced to be captured and used as a bio-fuel. In 2008, a landfill site in Mumbai captured the methane produced to generate electricity. This scheme is predicted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.2 million tonnes by 2028.

Ultimately, all wastes are discarded into the environment. However, some wastes are disposed directly into the surroundings (air, rivers, land and oceans), others are collected and treated prior to disposal (p. 395). Numerous approaches exist to dispose of

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Municipal Solid Waste web site they describe a four tier Solid Waste Management Hierarchy. They use a pyramid to represent the four tiers. The preferred method of waste management is listed at the bottom. From bottom to top it lists best practices in the following order: (1st tier) source reduction or waste prevention, (2nd tier) recycling, (3rd tier) waste that cannot be prevented or recycled that can be combusted with energy recovery, and (4th tier) landfill or incineration without energy recovery. (EPA-1) This hierocracy was

Leachate Collection systems optimize landfill systems and are designed as fail-safes for the storm-water drainage systems. Whenever water permeates through the landfill wells, it reacts with organic and inorganic contaminants and then becomes leachate. It is treated as sewage or wastewater before it is released [Freudenrich, 2005].

Landfills cause release of toxic chemicals into the air and cause harm to land and soil.