1. Atia Amatullah

2.  Most people think of landfills as dumps.
 Open holes where garbage is
deposited, swarming with vermin and other
animals.
A landfill is a bit more carefully designed.
 Usually a hole built into the ground with a
bottom liner, isolating garbage from coming into
contact with the environment.

3.  Two types of landfills:
 Sanitary: lined with layers of clay, sand and
plastic.
 Secure: almost same as a sanitary landfill, but
with thicker layers of clay and plastic.
 For dumping hazardous materials (sometimes
separated into barrels to prevent mixing of
incompatible wastes).
 Federalregulation restricts building landfills
near faults or bodies of water.

6.  Landfills are not compost piles.
 Buried waste is kept away from moisture and
oxygen and therefore is not decomposed easily.
 After
closing, the site and especially the
groundwater have to be monitored for up to
30 years.
Fresh Kills Landfill:
Staten Island, NY

8.  Two categories of solid wastes:
 Municipal solid waste (~1%): from
residences, businesses, etc.
 Paper, yard wastes, food
scraps, plastics, metals, glass.
 Non-municipal solid waste (~99%):
industry, agriculture, mining, oil and gas
production.
 Construction materials, waste water, sludge, pesticide
containers.

9.  Daily,the average American produces 4.6 lbs
of garbage.
 Annually, the US produces over 545 million
tons of solid waste (both MSW and non-MSW).
 Not including hazardous industrial waste.
 Equivalent to 247,000 space shuttles or 2.3
million Boeing 747s.

11.  The
US leads the pack in sending 53.4% of its
MSW to landfills.
 China sends 43% of its MSW to landfills.
 USestimated to have about 10,000
abandoned landfills, but UNEP says there
may be as many as 40,000.
 6 European countries, combined, estimated to
have 55,000 abandoned landfills.
 About 1,000 or so are active.

12.  Contamination of groundwater.
 Rainwater percolates through landfills collects at
the bottom liner, from where it is piped out.
 This leachate contains things like
dioxin, mercury, and pesticides and can
contaminate nearby aquifers.
 Cracks/breaks in piping or liners.
 2008: 82% of surveyed landfills had leaks; 41%
had leaks larger than a square foot.

13.  Many older landfills built before stricter
regulations were introduced are located near
large bodies of water.
 Resulting ease of dilution of contaminants makes
it difficult for monitoring wells to detect initial
leaks.

14.  Releasing methane (CH4):
 20x more effective greenhouse gas than CO2.
 Aerobic bacteria quickly deplete any O2 available
for decomposition, after which anaerobic
bacterial decomposition dominates the overall
process.
 Landfills in the US release ¼th of all CH4.
 Gas-to-energy: more efficient landfills collect up
to 75% of this CH4, but less efficient ones collect
a mere 9%.

15.  Incinerators:
 Most landfills have incinerators that burn a
certain portion of the garbage dumped in them.
 Waste-to-energy: produce steam that generates
electricity.
 Only 0.3% of US power generation.
 Produces CO2, SO2, various oxides of
nitrogen, mercury/other heavy metal compounds
and dioxins.
 Climate change, smog, carcinogens.

16.  Pollution caused by transportation of
garbage.
 Diesel trucks and trains.
 Nearly 40 toxic substances in diesel exhaust.
 EPA identifies as potential human carcinogen.

17.  Running out of space to build landfills.
 Less active landfills, but newer ones more likely
to be larger.
 Also, less than 10-15% of closed landfills get
redeveloped.
 NIMBY syndrome:
 Many states, like New York and New Jersey, ship their
garbage to other states willing to take them.
 Hazardous materials to sub-Saharan Africa.

18.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYLsX50
Cj1Y
 Recycle!
 Reduces environmental costs of using landfills
and incinerators.
 Reduces demand for natural resources.
 Pre-consumer and post-consumer
recycling.
 Curbside, drop-off, and recycling centers.

20.  Composting:
 Recycles organic yard wastes and food scraps.
 Returns nutrients to soil like in natural systems.
 Home composters and municipal composting
facilities.

21.  Reuse!
 Paper, plastic bags, bottles, etc.
 Reduce overall consumption.
 Use less packaging.
 Make fewer individual packages.
 Use less material to produce goods.