Landfills: Legal, Illegal, Solid Waste, Hazardous Waste .
Community refuse disposal areas are nearly as old as public waste management itself. The first municipal waste site in Western Civilization is believed to have been established around 500 B.C. in Athens, Greece. The Council of Athens issued an order prohibiting the dumping of garbage within one mile of the city wall. .
American landfills were preceded by disposal areas similar to those of ancient Greece. No efforts were made to compact or cover trash at these unregulated town dumps. Over the years, these illegal dumps have been replaced with sanitary landfills which are sophisticated in design and regulated in every aspect. Landfills are the most widely used solid waste management option. "In 1995, there were approximately 2,500 landfills in America into which we put approximately 57 percent of our municipal solid waste" (1). .
A legal landfill is a carefully engineered depression in the ground into which wastes are put. The aim is to avoid any connection between the wastes and the surrounding environment, particularly groundwater. Basically, a landfill is a bathtub in the ground; a double-lined landfill is one bathtub inside another. Landfills are constructed with a number of safeguards, and new federal standards require landfills to have liners, leachate collection systems, and gas monitoring systems. Today landfills are divided into smaller units called cells. Only one cell is open at a time and it is covered nightly. Nightly covers help to reduce odor and pest problems. .
WHAT DO WE PUT IN LANDFILLS.
"Although different studies have produced different findings, most data suggests that about 40 percent of materials entering landfills are paper products, 20 percent yard waste, 9 percent metals, 9 percent food, 8 percent glass, and 7 percent plastic" (1). As organic wastes decompose they generate gases including methane which is a greenhouse gas.
Solid Waste: Are landfills enough? Solid waste is the term civil engineers use to refer to what most of us call garbage. Municipal solid waste is something very familiar to us. ... Some holidays such as Christmas create an enormous amount of solid waste. ... Hazardous Waste and Solid Waste. ...
As defined in Environmental Science "solid waste is any discarded material that is not a liquid or gas. ... In fact, since the 1960's each person in America has almost doubled their output of solid waste. There are two kinds of solid waste. ... Incinerators burn waste, which compacts it, but the ash is more toxic than normal solid waste. ... Paper makes up the largest amount of municipal solid waste at about 40% and is continuing to rise. ...
There are two approaches to managing municipal solid waste. ... Landfills, the symbol of the high-waste approach, have the proven reputation of preventing solid waste from degrading, not to mention attracting a lot of traffic, noise, and dust to the surrounding areas. The low-waste approach works in two ways: by attempting to produce as little solid waste as possible, and diverting as much solid waste away from landfills and incinerators. ... Solid waste management exists in a hierarchy, with landfill and incineration at the bottom and source reduction, reuse, and recycling at the top. ... ...
Landfills are "garbage graveyards in which solid wastes are spread out in thin layers, compacted, and covered daily with topsoil" (Miller,1999, p.383). ... In 1996, 16% of Municipal Solid Waste was incinerated. ... RISK ANALYSIS The remaining 17% of municipal solid waste in the United States is recycled or composted (Solid Waste, 2000). ... It reduces the amount of waste taken to the landfill or incinerator (Miller, 1999, p. 365). ... In 1991, a division of the IDEM, the Indiana Solid Waste Management was formed. ...
This is equal to approximately 4.9 pounds of solid waste daily per person. ... The current disposal process being used for the remaining 99.5% of solid waste NOT being recycled is destined to Puerto Rico's landfills What is being disposed? ... By the end of the year, 36 of them were closed leaving 32 landfills operating for the entire island. 3 more have closed and currently there are 29 landfills operating in Puerto Rico. ... Recycling is the most effective method used today to reduce the volumes of solid waste. ... Many experts on waste disposal talk about incinerators as a valuable...
First thing you must know is what is solid and hazardous waste is and how much is produced each year. ... The United States produces 33% of the world's solid waste. ... However, the reaming waste comes from municipal solid waste. ... There are two ways to reduce the solid and hazardous waste that we create everyday. ... Over 50% of waste in the U.S. is buried in sanitary landfills. ...
The disposal landfill waste is a necessary job that creates many environmental externalities. ... Landfill externalities can be classified as either fixed (independent of the quantity of waste) or variable (depending on the quantity of waste) costs and benefits. ... The main emissions from incineration and landfill disposal of municipal solid waste and their impacts on receptors are NOx, SO2, and particulates and the greenhouse gas CO2. ... Given the difficulty, as well as the high cost, of siting and constructing municipal solid waste landfills it is incumbent on landfill managers to evalu...
The municipal ´s waste landfills may be one of the many causes of the ground water contamination, since many of the old solid waste landfills in municipals were often situated over aquifers which did not have clay or synthetic liners and leachate like they are required to have now. ... The wastes that are dumped in the municipal landfills may contain hazardous wastes even though they are supposed to be disposed in the hazardous waste landfills. These sometimes end up in the municipal landfills which can later cause problems since they are being disposed as solid waste instead as a hazardous w...
The municipal´s waste landfills may be one of the many causes of the ground water contamination, since many of the old solid waste landfills in municipals were often situated over aquifers which did not have clay or synthetic liners and leachate like they are required to have now. ... The wastes that are dumped in the municipal landfills may contain hazardous wastes even though they are supposed to be disposed in the hazardous waste landfills. These sometimes end up in the municipal landfills which can later cause problems since they are being disposed as solid waste instead as a hazardous wa...
