Pros Cons Of Landfills And Incineration

Landfills can be used in many ways. In fact, the gases in a landfill, like methane, can be used to heat our homes, or gives us electricity, but these gases can be minor. To produce this methane gas and others, H2O and oxygen go into the dirt covered pack. Once this happens, the gases go out doing their evil mission: hurting the atmosphere. In a sanitary landfill, operators have to control the H2O and oxygen. If operators cover the pack too early, the pack will go down and pollute for a long time. Lastly, the gases produce the odor of the landfill.

The purpose of the landfill was to bury the large amount of contaminated the soil with toxic Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), a class of chemicals so toxic that Congress banned production later. The whole story began in 1973 when Ward PCB Transformers Company dumped more than 30,000 gallons of PCB-contaminated oil on the side of state roads in 14 North Carolina counties. The trucker, who was responsible for taking the oil to a facility to be recycled, disposed of it discreetly and illegally. The person in charge of the company and the trucker was sent to jail for a short time for their negligence on the matter. Contaminants left in the truck and factory was detoxified. However, the area around the factory as well as the lakes and rivers close to the road had been polluted. As a result, more than 60,000 tons of oils were polluted with toxic PCB.

Since most people just throw away natural resources, our landfills are filling up rapidly. Landfills filling up rapidly means that more and more of the environment is dying. If more of the environment dies and is used as landfills more climate change, pollution and habitat loss is made.

Currently, landfills are responsible for 15 million tonnes of C02 in our atmosphere each year. When garbage decomposes, it creates methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This contributes to greenhouse gasses and damages the ozone layer. Landfills take up space, as well as being dangerous and toxic. Rubbish that ends up in our oceans can cause harm to our marine life and poison our water.

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

There’s a difference between a dump and a landfill. A dump is a hole in the ground where trash is disposed of. A landfill is a structure built on

When garbage or waste materials are tossed into a landfill, people are just asking for nauseating odors and polluted land sites. In Kathy P. Anderson’s article, “THE ENVIRONMENT: Reducing Waste,” she describes that liners are located beneath landfills and when the weather becomes a problem, those liners can leak, allowing leachate to attract to the surface. Saying this, she writes about the quality of environment after a leak: “The leachate then carries pollutants through the soil under the landfill to groundwater and to nearby rivers and lakes. When people or wildlife drink the poisoned water, they can get sick or die” (Anderson). If a liner were to leak, pollutants could be poisonous in the water and be harmful to not only individuals but

The United Sates and Canada are some of the top natural resources spots. When they are mined the materials they use heavy machinery which could pollute the land, air, and water around it and leaves rock and other natural material just sitting on the top of the landfills. These landfills should be used as something elsa when they have been mined up with so it is not just left empty.

Another hazardous item found in landfills is methane. In landfills nearly two-thirds of this waste material can be traced back to household matter, material decomposes in landfill sites causing them to release methane gas. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, nearly 20 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (“Landfill Pollution”).

Landfills are mostly composed of non-biodegradable waste which takes a long time to decompose. Recycling old and waste products into new products will reduce the amount of waste that enters landfills across the nation. Doing so helps in reducing water and land pollution as landfills are a major source in contributing to destruction of natural environment. Recycling programs keeps enormous amounts of waste from being deposited into landfills every year allowing for unused land to be preserved for other uses rather than another waste site. Also, if we don’t recycle, more and more garbage will enter the landfills until they are all used up. When that happens, where will the new waste be placed and would you like to have a landfill as a backyard? According to the Bear Spring Blossom (BSB), “Landfills are a ticking time bombs-producing unknown gases and chemicals” (“Recycling”). Also, it goes on to state, “Recycling helps to reduce landfill space and disposal costs” (“Recycling”). Even though reducing the size of landfills is a notable benefit, there are other things that benefit from

The United States of America has come a long way since its inception. The development of homes, cars, technologies, goods, and services has evolved. Also, the way in which Americans consume has drastically changed. And with all these great things, came solid waste generation, and unfortunately not methods for disposing of it in an environmentally friendly manner. The United States is the top trash-producing country in the world at over 1,600 pounds per person per year. Although the U.S. accounts for 5% of the world’s population, it generates 40% of the world’s waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2010 “Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash and recycled and composted over 85 million tons of materials, resulting in 34.1 percent recycling rate. On average, each American generates about 4.43 pounds of waste each day. Only 1.51 pounds of that material were recycled and composed” (EPA, 2010).

To begin with landfills are bad for our health because of leachate and E-waste. Bisnessdictnary.com defined leachate as “Water escaping from a landfill site which, if not collected, will contaminate the natural water sources.” Which means that trash is ruining our good water places, and we need water everyday. Infixit.org defined E-waste as“When electronics end up in landfills, toxics like lead, mercury, and cadmium leach into the soil and water.” Thoes toxics are very bad for your health and can damage your lungs, kidneys, and other

Less chemicals emitted, lots of scrap recycled material, and many job employments are all reasons why recycling should be used more. While, recycling is one of many ways to decrease landfill use, it has proven to be more effective and therefore should be used more

Landfills have many drawbacks to them. Landfills are not the best way to get rid of the waste that the world puts out. Three major harms of landfills are: they can harm the environment and living organisms around that specific, landfills take up space that people could use to make businesses, homes or parks for the kids in the neighborhood, and people throw things away that can easily be recycled.

The breakdown of food waste in landfill releases nutrients, which can migrate out of landfilled waste and into the surrounding environment. Groundwater and waterways will be polluted because of too many nutrients release in landfills. When it is raining, the landfills may leak and the leaking landfills can pollute the underground water by bringing the polluted rain water into the underground.