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The importance of landfill essay
The importance of landfill essay
Advantages and disadvantages of landfills
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Why Modern landfill?
Modern MSW landfills vs. Old landfills
BY: AMIR MOVAHEDI
Construction Management
EGCE 573
Introduction
Most people do not see “garbage and waste” as an interesting topic, but when it comes to “Landfill” it would bring more attention and excitement due to the impacts and importance of these vast manmade area. Based on dictionary, synonyms of word “Landfill” defined as: disposal area, dumping ground, garbage lot, recycling station, transfer station” while there are some major differences between the aforementioned synonyms, so I found this very interesting subject to introduce in my term paper. The paper will introduce a comparison between Modern Landfills and old landfills (Dump), in view of the regulations and laws, different impact on environment, new technology, method and feasibility that use in Modern Landfill, overall design, related beneficial aspects and revenue including data and examples.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), American’s produced at least 1600 pounds of municipal solid waste (MSW) in fiscal year 2005 and more than 54 percent of the wastes disposed in landfills the amount of 140 million tons of waste. This amount of waste has potential to produce toxic gases, CO2, Methane, greenhouse gas (GHG), metals volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), and toxic poisonous soup called leachate along hundreds of other contaminants. By using dump and old landfills, these pollutants became serious hazards to the environment, air quality, ozone layer, soil contamination, ground water and human resource. On the other hand, there are many opportunities to take advantage of municipal solid waste (MSW) by constructing Mod...
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...ccording to EPA calculator. That is great technology and usable for many landfills. Lots of landfills are built in urban areas so they are close to transmission lines.
Conclusion:
When it comes to waste, many environmental problems are associated with open dumps; however, in today's modern landfill design and operation the goal is to control, manage and eliminate environmental impacts. By growth and use of new technology and taking correct managerial steps these pollutants and issues can be used as an advantage to our cause. Promoting and operating safe and efficient MSW landfills have been the focus of the solid waste management industry and its trade association, the National Solid Wastes Management Association. The importance of this issue is the reason for the industry to continue to explore new designs and operations to protect human health and the environment.
The Lowry Landfill Superfund Site is located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, approximately 2 miles east of Aurora. It consists of approximately 507 acres of waste disposal area and is operated by Waste Management of Colorado, Inc. The land surrounding the site consists of native prairie grass and a wetland located along a local creek. Sections around the site are zoned for agricultural use including cattle grazing and non-irrigated wheat farms. 1 The area is home to numerous endangered species including the bald eagle and peregrine falcon. Due to the large amounts of wastes disposed on the site between 1965 and 1980, it became extremely contaminated with a variety of inorganic and organic contaminants. From 1984 to 1993, the EPA oversaw remedial investigation and feasibility studies that were performed by all responsible parties. Since its listing as a superfund site in 1984, multiple remedial actions have been performed in order to rehabilitate the site. These include clay barrier walls around the site, a groundwater collection system, a soil cover for the main landfill, as well as a landfill gas collection system. Groundwater that is collected on the site is treated at an onsite water treatment facility. In 2007, construction began on an onsite gas to energy plant that utilizes the methane produced by the landfill site. The electricity produced by the plant is enough to power 3000 households. 1 Today, use of land and groundwater on and near the site is still restricted by the state of Colorado.1
In conclusion, the material in Garbage Land connects to my research problem in that, it explains how the garbage collected from households is handled. Even though there are no aseptic techniques involved by the people handling this trash, it is clear that most of the waste obtained is recycled for re-use. Accordissng to Royte, 28% of the remainder is buried, 17% incinerated, and 1% is “surface disposed” without processing (Royte,
Heather Roger's essay Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage offers a compelling outlook on society’s excessive and uneconomical mass-production of goods (585). Rogers explains the process in which our garbage and waste are collected, processed, and discarded (Roger 585). From your kitchen, to the curb, then into collection trucks, to the processing unit, where they separate, recycle, burn, compact, and deposit your garbage in our Earth (Roger 585). Roger quotes “… Dumps are comprised of a series of earth covered cells” (Rogers 586). Landfills have used “Cells” to burry trash for decades and today’s cells are lined with a special material preventing the trash from leaking into the ground and rainwater (Roger 586). A cell can be up to 100 acres across and up to hundred feet deep (586). It takes years to fill a cell and after the cell is full it is “capped” and covered over with several feet of dirt (586-587).
Harmful emissions from the landfills escape into the air we breathe. The soil and water are also contaminated from our
With the disposal of solid waste from process, manufacturing and its waste pose considerable challenges for many organizations. Since, landfilling has become limited, and with the cost of waste disposal continuing to rise, they needed alternative measures.
In conclusion to this investigation one thing is clear and that is that recycling reeks benefits to the environment, Recycling material when compared to making material from raw material is a more efficient energy saving and more environmentally friendly way to reuse material that is usually consider as trash such as empty glass, and plastic bottles, or old newspapers. Recycling helps reduce the possible carbon emissions greatly and does reduce the human carbon footprint. But Recycling doesn’t resolve the pollution that is around the world today. Leading to new questions, questions like what about the landfills are they sustainable, and if so for how long. How long until the air becomes unbreathable? How long until Earth becomes its own furnace?
Landfills in America have taken many square miles of what used to be fertile land, forests and communities and that trend does not seem to have an end. The waste, we as Americans, dispose of each year is in the tons and that number rises annually. One of the reasons why this occurs is actually quite simple; population. Population in modern day America has soared to well above three hundred million, in 1915 that number was hundred million. Urbanization and industry has given way to deforestation and landfill creation. The need for more landfills has caused many health concerns, issues, and problems to not only those living near and
Waste management is the operation of how waste materials are handled. The affair of waste management is relevant to everyone world-wide. Wastes are materials that have no further economic use, and when disposed of, are hazardous to humans and the environment. Wastes include solid waste, liquid wastes, and air pollutants created by humans and cannot be naturally recycled. Current waste management techniques need to be completely overhauled because funding in government budget is not enough to meet standards, landfills are reaching their maximum capacity worldwide, and nuclear waste storage must be handled correctly. Waste management has been a highly thought about complication for global authorities. Due to
Landfill is the most frequent waste disposal method all around the world. The present of landfill is recognised as being an important in this days as well as future, especially in low and middle income countries since it is the easiest way to build. Generally, there is two types of landfill can be classified, dry-tomb and bioreactor.
To begin with, in the U.S., trash is most commonly sent to a landfill, unfortunately though, once it arrives there little sorting occurs. According to the EPA, “Nationally, food is the single most common material sent to landfills. When excess food, leftover food, and food scraps are disposed of in a landfill, they decompose and become a significant source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas” (“Cupertino Honored”). At a landfill, trash arriving is only screened for liquids in order to avoid the creation of leachate, or water that is contaminated from dissolved chemicals in garbage. Once screened, dumped, and covered, bacteria begin to decompose the trash and, as a result, release methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The fact is that landfills are ideally supposed to be used to bury garbage that is non-decomposable, however, with the garbage collection method that is currently in place across many states, all unsorted garbage is being sent there. In addition, “...traditional trash disposal not only wastes material that can enrich soil but accelerates climate change. Organic matter decom...
To prevent that we can start recycling today, it will be like investing in the future where we are making earth's air, land and water pure. Canada’s landfills are also terminating. Most states have less than twenty years of landfill capacity and who wants to live next to a new landfill? Canadian households produce 13.4 million tonnes of that waste. This figure will be decreased in great numbers if people pay attention towards a proper recycle system and take part in it.
Traditional methods of waste disposal have proven to be ineffective and have caused harmful effects on the environment. The most popular and inexpensive way to get rid of garbage is burial, but burying your problems does not necessarily mean getting rid of them. Landfill sites pose as severe ecological threats as these mass garbage dump yards overflow with trash and frequently contaminate our air, soil and water with hazardous wastes. About 400 million tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year1. A large-scale release of these materials can cause thousands of deaths and may poison the environment for many years. For example many industrial companies around the world cannot afford to enforce the strict pollution regulations set by many developed countries. This usually forces these types of companies to move to developing countries where pollution regulations are very lenient. These developing countries knowingly accept environmentally hazardous companies usually because they are in desperate need of employment. The harmful effects of these companies were clearly illustrated in the 1960s and 1970s when residents living near Minamata Bay, Japan, developed nervous disorders, tremors, and paralysis in a mysterious epidemic. The root was later found to be a local industry that had released mercury, a highly toxic element, into Minamata Bay. The disaster had claimed the lives of 400 people1. Since 1970 you can bet that a lot more than 400 people have died as a result of waste disposal. If the type of waste disposal were cheaper and effective we wouldn’t have to deal with waste problems, which still plague mankind today.
The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid wastes each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet. The number landfills in the United States are decreasing, but the amount and volume of waste being thrown into the new landfills is increasing (Russell 4). Because of this escalating amount of garbage, Methane which contributes to global warming is an outcome of these landfills (Russell 7). As a result, our planet is suffering because of this epidemic. The garbage being put in the landfills could be recycled, but not enough businesses, ...
Policy is needed to regulate which course of action should be taken and how it should be implemented. Because of this, many plans and policies revolving around the management of solid waste have been put in place. Sometimes however, a particular policy can have its shortfalls, potentially resulting in its negative aspects outweighing the positive ones. According to the Conference Board of Canada Report, “Canadians dispose of more municipal solid waste per capita than any other country” (2013). Solid waste management in particular, involves many aspects, ranging from packaging waste, food waste, etc. (White & Franke 1999), hence, the following analysis revolves around household and commercial waste – referred to as Municipal Solid Waste (White & Franke. 1999) – in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. Municipal waste is a major health and environmental concern as it contributes to numerous problems like habitat destruction, surface groundwater pollution, and other forms of air, soil, and water contamination. Waste disposal methods like incineration create toxic substances, and landfills emit methane, which contributes to global warming. According to the Zero Waste Objective Report, “The impact of climate change and the increasing awareness of the role of “waste” and “wasting” in the production of greenhouse gas emissions is a constant environmental pressure… (2009). This leads to an increasing limitation of government to prevent and control the volume and toxicity of products in the waste stream and a growing need to shift responsibility to the product manufacturer.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (2008), an American produces 250 million tons of garbage per year (para.2). There are different circumstances that are based on the society, environmental conditions, occupation and size of each of the different families. As Richmond (2010) stated, if no administration organizations has the responsibility or resources to concentrate their efforts on the waste disposal, then the responsibility to do that is on the nongovernmental organizations and ordinary people (para.... ... middle of paper ... ...