The Importance Of Recycling And Landfills

Assessments began to take place in the mid 1980’s, shortly after the site made the National Priorities list in 1983. Relevant standards and guidance levels were used to measure the effect of the Helen Kramer Landfill. The initiation of the EPA’s remedial investigation and feasibility study deemed the nature of the Helen Kramer landfill as an extreme risk to the environment, characterizing the site “by randomly placed, uncompacted, and uncovered refuse, with numerous settlement cracks which vented methane and water vapor” (2). According to the EPA, several million gallons of chemical wastes and over two million cubic yards of solid waste were estimated to have been disposed of at the landfill (2). Studies were performed by the EPA, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, federal natural resource trustees in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to evaluate the onsite and nearby environmental effects due to the landfill. During these studies, contaminants were detected in air, sediments, and aquifers, including high levels of volatile organic compounds and heavy metals in the air and sediments. VOCS and heavy metals expose humans to carcinogens, developmental toxicants, and reproductive toxicants. The assessments also detected numerous contaminants such as (but not limited to),

In addition, there exist some environmental risks related to producing landfill. Even though the Australian Federal Government is not offering incentives to repurpose waste, some communities and State and Local governments are offering incentives for this practice. The main purpose of this is to avoid the disposing of waste in landfills, due to the fact that it requires so much time, energy and space, injuring our planet's health (McCabe,

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

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.

Many people seem to think that when the nation is looking for a new place to put a landfill, that must mean the old landfills are closing or filling up. This is not necessarily the case. The nation does keep generating large amounts of waste that do need to be handled. However the political statement of “Not in My Backyard”, or Nimby, is really the issue surrounding landfills. Wealthy individuals with political influence do not want to live in a neighborhood with smelly and unsightly piles of trash, so that becomes one less location available for landfills. (Patterson III, 2010) So instead of having a landfill within their own area, some states pay other states, like Kentucky, to take their trash. So now the trash has a further way to travel

In order for food to be cultivated and produced, forest, grasslands, and other ecosystems have to be transformed into farmlands. This alteration destroys the habitat and affects all the animals that once lived there leading to the decline of their population. Secondly, large amount of fresh water (a limited resource) is utilized to produce consumer goods. 70 percent of [fresh] water worldwide is used for agriculture. (Houtman) Consequently, when food is wasted and thrown away, the water that was used to produce it is also being thrown away. Lastly, all the food, and other materials that are not utilized end up in landfills. Not only are these landfills taking up land that can be used for other purposes, but they are also contributing to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Toxic gases such as carbon dioxide, and methane are emitted from landfills into our atmosphere leading to global

Scientifically and economically, we know the garbage we produce can be used to improve our nation, but we choose to slack off and not take advantage of the waste that is claimed by landfills. Consequently. citizens think that leaving their so

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.

Historically, the state of garbage in California has not been that pleasing. Most of the landfills in the State are currently overused as some continues to get worse with time. This probably is the case because by the year 2013, only 36.6% of the entire waste products in United States were actually recycled. Moreover, according to the findings presented from CalRecycle study, the existing organic wastes constitute 32.4% of all the waste product. Sadly, these organic wastes pose a significant threat to the surrounding environment (Donovan). The common practice of burying solid wastes in a landfill is confirm dangerous to the environment because of the chemicals that later build up beneath the earth surface hence producing Leachate, a poisonous

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

Landfills are getting bigger and are becoming more of a problem in the U.S because they are hazardous to our health and our environment, but there is a way to stop the villain known as a landfill.

Global warming is a problem with plenty of scientific evidence to prove the clement change. There is a concentrated amount of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas causing to reach high temperature the earth has not experienced in 650,000 years (NASA, 2015). The Unite State should pass ever law possible to preserve the earth. Methane gas account for 10% of greenhouse emission in the US (EPA, 2015). However Landfills are the third longest producer of emissions therefor it is imperative to have laws to minimize what is dumped (EPA, 2015). For starters There shoulder a Law that bans the use of plastic bags for industry and households. Using only biodegradable would be break down landfill and would be initially be better for the overall wellbeing

A. Attention Getter: Over half of the waste that ends up in the landfill does not belong there because it could have been recycled or reused.

There is always some sort of odour at the landfill due to the nature of the

It’s easy to pinpoint the cause of the problem in our local area. According to the fact sheet 54% of waste is municipal, 22% of waste is residual, 10% of waste is from sewage sludge, 11% from construction/demolition, and 2% of waste is from Ash & Asbestos (Landfill Facts). These are interesting numbers that show where the problem comes from directly in my local area. These are all areas that solid waste comes from, and is brought to the landfill. According to Danny, there are 40-50 companies that bring landfill to this area (Hassenplug). Again, 54% of waste comes from cities and towns so that means a majority of the waste is produced by people in the surrounding area of the landfill. Living in America, we’re all very wasteful people simply because it’s America, and we can. Solid waste that is produced and sent to landfills is not a problem specific to