http://landfill-site.com/html/landfills__environmental_probl.php Landfill problems. Landfill lining requirements, capping and landfill restoration described. Protect the environment and groundwater.

Landfill Has Its Problems

Waste put in a landfill will stay there for a very long time. Inside a landfill, there is little oxygen and little moisture. Although trash generation has declined by almost 5 percent in may US cities where recycling takes place at source,  extending the life of the landfills, suitable sites are running out.

Methane and other gasses known as landfill gas is produced by all landfills. Methane is 21 times more damaging than carbon dioxide. Landfill sites produce 25% of total methane emissions in the UK, some of which is burned to produce electricity. With special wells the gas is captured and piped to a processing facility, but if not, all such gas from landfills contribute heavily to the total greehouse gases discharged by man and which are believed to cause global warming.

Environmental Protection Agencies (EPAs) worldwide have been tasked by their governments to address the problems posed by landfills, and to design solutions to alleviate risks to the environment.

But environmental contamination from landfills is still entering waterways and underground aquifers at alarming rates in many countries of the wrold. Landfill liner breaches are also not uncommon, even when the landfill owners do try to stop the contamination. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] funded research has been done which shows that burying household garbage in the ground poisons the groundwater. On several occasions, EPAs in a number of countries have spelled out in detail the reasons why all landfills will leak.

America produces approximately 220 million tons of garbage each year. This is equivalent to burying more than 82,000 football fields six feet deep in compacted garbage.

Recycling household waste is a key topic in the fight to reduce the prblems of landfill, and I make no apology for devoting time to discussing it. [1] Recycling is good for our lives and good for the earth. Cleaner air, cleaner water, cleaner land.

Waste minimization and recycling help address global climate change by decreasing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions and saving energy. The focus of many nations countries is mainly on the environmental management of the landfills. Waste-to-energy (WTE) plants create heat and electricity from burning mixed solid waste.

[2] Waste handling and separation involves the activities associated with management of waste until they are placed in a storage container for collection. Handling also encompasses the movement of loaded containers to the point of collection. There will need to be much more and better waste management in many countries if the problems of landfill are to be cured.