Landfill Essay

The 1970s marked the beginning of the consumer age, unprecedented consumerism rapidly developed consumption became an individual phenomenon through which people could distinguish themselves. Landfills were required to dispose of the increasing waste households produced. The traditional landfills built during the 1970s had no engineering or lining preparation and toxic leachates were discovered to have implications leading to ground water and surface water contamination. Although the type of waste being disposed would not be as polluting as the modern types of waste which has become more toxic with chemicals, rubber, heavy metals, toxic materials found in batteries, drugs and plastics.

A major issue with landfills is leachates, rain seeps through the cover and trickles down through the refuse. When water and waste are mixed it creates a toxic solution called leachates which contain all the toxins that are in the refuse. The leachate containing the poisons percolates through the refuse and forms a pool at the bottom. This was contaminating the ground water and surface water and could end up in drinking water. Because of leachates a main issue is to keep landfills away from places where ground water gets very close to the surface, rivers, streams or wetlands.

Sanitary landfill started in the US with the Pollution Prevention act 1990 and the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments 1994 all operating landfills are required to control the amount of toxins and hazardous materials that they generate.

European legislation Council Directive 99/31/EC Landfill Directive aimed to reduce the adverse effects of landfill waste on the environment, in particular on surface water, groundwater, soil, air, and human health. Member States were ...

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... Incineration Directive 2000/76/EC has strict legislation controlling the emissions from incineration.

One tonne of municipal solid waste produces 650Kwh of electricity. A plant handling 400 thousand tonnes of waste can generate enough electricity to service 20 thousand homes. Furthermore recovering the heat from the plant and providing it to communities through a heating system will increase the energy efficiency of the plant up to 80%. The conventional power plant has an efficiency of 35%.

Commercial incineration of municipal waste began 2011 at Indaver Carranstown Meath and is licenced to treat 0.2 Mt per year. EPA granted licences for commercial incinerators at Ringaskiddy Cork and Poolbeg Dublin which have been stopped after local objections resulting in a scrapping of €95 million and €81million respectively spent on land purchases and consultancy fees.