The Importance Of Landfills

In order for environmental change to happen society needs to see the significance of trash. To make sense of that recall a time were you forgot to take the trash out and days later were reminded by the rotten stench? Now multiply the stench of that 1 bag 2 million times. To help you further understand let’s put this in mathematical terms. Let’s say on average 1 garbage bag weighs 20Lbs. that equates to 1bag=20lbs x 2,000,000 = 40 million putrid bags. This equation has opened my eyes. Rogers’s argument that Landfills should be in public places is a good one. Society is sheltered from Landfills: so they are out of sight therefore out of mind. If we can’t see the pollution we can’t change our carbon foot print.

There are different ways Americans can dispose of the 200 million tons of garbage they generate each year. In the 1930’s people started to use landfills, as opposed to open dumps, which drew insects and vermin, causing disease. Landfills are made by digging holes in the in the ground and filling it with waste products and then capped. The government safeguards landfills, and each landfill is exclusive to the kind of waste it has. This method is controlled and monitored, as is the method of incineration. Incineration is the burning of solid waste products at a temperature of 850 degrees. There are pros and cons to each method.

In Mantua Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey, privately owned land once stood as one of the most hazardous waste sites in the United States. This site known as the Helen Kramer Landfill included 66-acres of waste, 11 acres of unfavorably conditioned vegetation, and no onsite residents. Prior to the early 1960’s, Helen Keller landfill was a sand and gravel excavation operation, but soon began to incorporate the disposal of waste material for about a decade. After the landfill received numerous inspections and notices between 1971 and 1977, the owner Helen Kramer was informed to cease operation of the landfill. As New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection reports indicated and area residents stated, “sporadic chemical

The complex issues surrounding the Agriculture Street Landfill are part of a much larger story about environmental justice and public housing that, while an entrenched part of the city’s history, came to the forefront post-Katrina. According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Health Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., “a powerfully discriminatory tendency in planning is for environmentally vulnerable low-income neighborhoods to be deemed disposable, whereas equally vulnerable high-income neighborhoods are deemed indispensable because they are more valuable (Morse 2008).” Nowhere has this been more evident than in these poor, black New Orleans neighborhoods, historically dominated by public housing.

Fresh Kills Landfill, the largest landfill in the world (former), is located in Staten Island, New York. It is a total of 2200 acres where it opened in 1948 and lasted until March of 2001. The initial goal of the landfill was to remain open for five years, yet it was open longer, if not for a few decades. This landfill was one of the dominant landfills for storing garbage collected around New York City.

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

Americans have yet to face the unnerving reality of the fact that “in 2008 only 7.1% of the 30.05 million tons of plastic waste in America was recycled” (Linn). This low percentage is shocking, outrageous, and should terrify the American public, but this number can change. Recycling is not just a feel good experience; it is a way to help save energy, space, and money. However, with the enormous amount of trash being thrown out each year, landfills are increasing in size creating numerous issues. The staggering amount of waste increases greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming and building up dangerous toxins that sink underground into our soil and water, overflows into wildlife habitats and oceans, and costs a large amount of money to remove. By fining residents who incorrectly dispose of recyclable goods, implementing recycling as a requirement in educational institutions and other business and residential settings, categorizing the

Furthermore, please keep in mind all the benefits that the inert landfill has been able to provide Tinytown over the years. Benefits such as, keeping sales and property taxes very low compared to surrounding areas, and a revenue source because several surrounding communities pay the Tinytown to use its landfill.

In the span of 50 years, the population of humans on this planet have reached all-time highs and continue to rise and with this rise comes the effects of overpopulation. The planet cannot sustain so many people during such a short span of time. Not only is there a loss of space for new generations of humans to live on, but there has been an excessive use of natural resources before there is a chance to replenish them such as food, natural gases, and water. The problem of overpopulation seems to truly encompasses all other aspects of the factors leading to the sixth mass extinction such as habitat loss and global warming. The population must be feed and because of this, million upon millions of acres of land once inhabited by a whole ecosystem have been converted to farmland to provide food for the growing population. In addition, the increase in leads to an increase in waste and therein arises a problem: where to put the waste. In the United States alone, “4.39 pounds of trash per day and up to 56 tons of trash per year are created by the average person” Landfills seemed to be the perfect solution for this problem, however, over the years, “landfill managers have been emphasizing just how quickly they are running out of space. The more people there are on the planet, the more waste is being produced. Some of this waste is quite toxic, and even landfills which are

Recycling is known very well to most of the United States. It has been a buzzword since my childhood in the 80's. However, many towns and metropolitans, including my home town of Savannah, have trouble getting their residents to actively participate in the recycling programs.  There are many reasons people can site for not participating, some are personal issues, and some are those of the city itself. The first that comes to mind far too often is even though most solid waste can be sorted and recycled, the amount that is picked up is not even half as frequent. From a city stand point, expansion of the program itself may cause a hemorrhaging of money that can't be undone. Landfills have been an environmentally sound option for years, but they all have the same problem of finite space. On the surface it seems simple, but nothing is ever that easy. Both recycling programs and landfills cost large amounts of capital to maintain. With the goal of an environmentally stable city, landfills and their finite space will always be a problem. With vision and drive maybe the tables can be turned.

In 2016, Americans elected a new President, Donald Trump. During his campaign, candidate Trump made several promises about the EPA. One of Donald Trump’s campaign promises that I read on www.washingtonpost.com, “the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) might disappear,” reminded me of the “Love Canal” scandal. As a student of biology and geology and a future scientist, the idea that government agencies would no longer assist with the protection of the environment, which includes politicians, was astonishing. According to an Executive Order signed by President Trump and posted on www.epa.gov, the “2015 Clean Water Rule” that protected streams and oceans from environment pollutants was rescinded (2017). The reason the quote by candidate Trump and the executive order by President Trump has any relevance is because these same actions could impact pre-1991 landfills. Landfills built before the 1991 regulations were not required to install barriers that protect the groundwater from carcinogens. There are chemicals that the EPA has determined to cause cancers and presently exist in landfills. Landfills built before 1991 are not required to protect any humans, wildlife or plants, or water from toxins and the new EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt could decide the current regulations are too

At this rate, the garbage problem in America is hard to treat (Griffin 3). In 1979, there were 18,500 operating landfills in the country and today only 5,000 are open. Within the next three years, 2,000 more will close because they are full (2). Our country throws away too much trash and recycles very little. However, the government can make decisions about these issues to lead us to better recycling efforts (14).

New York City, like most cities across the United Sates utilizes landfills to dispose of their waste. Fresh Kills Landfill opened in 1948 and was only intended to be a temporary landfill used for 20 years, however by 1955 it became the largest landfill in the world as it was turned into New York’s primary dumping ground for the second half of the 20th century. At the peak of operation Fresh Kills was receiving twenty barges carry 650 tons of waste each and every day. In March of 2001 Fresh Kills reached capacity and with the urging of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and local residents it was shut down. That left a big question for the Department of Sanitation as to what to do with New York City and its surrounding boroughs trash? (Fresh Kills Park Alliance)

American citizens throw away millions of tons of garbage each year, and this trash has to go somewhere. While there are projects underway to clean and reuse this refuse most of it gets dumped into huge landfills. These landfills are disgusting festering blisters on our country's landscape. But people continue to consume and throw away more and more in the name of convenience. As they see it, when things get old, throw it away and get a new one. They blame the government for the trash problem, but the truth blame should be placed on themselves.