How do landfills affect our environment

Landfill sites are partially responsible for global warming as they generate and release biogas into the atmosphere. Some of these landfills have degassing methods, which is an improvement over conventional landfills, but still has its drawbacks: degassing is usually performed after the landfill cell has been closed, so methane from the more readily biodegradable components will have already been released into the atmosphere before degassing occurs.

Horizontal degassing projects that aim to capture methane while the landfill cell is still in operation achieve better results, but they can only capture a portion of the methane generated. Sometimes methane produced by waste from landfill sites can cause explosions and fires. This downside is more common than meets the eye, because the fires that occur are not regular fires with flames, but fires that occur inside the landfill.

Dioxin emissions from these spontaneous uncontrolled fires are also very harmful to the environment, not to mention the damaging effects they have on aquifers, whose waterproofing membranes are affected by the fire. Landfill sites are often responsible for the contamination of soil and groundwater , as the contaminating materials such as heavy materials like lead and mercury that the stored waste may contain can spread to the soil and water near the plant.

Moreover, although it is not very common for waterproofing membranes to rupture, it has a devastating effect on the environment when they do. Landfill sites have particularly negative effects on bird migration.

Some birds feed from landfill sites , inevitably ingesting plastic, aluminium, gypsum and other materials that are common among waste, which can even prove fatal. Economical and cultural development has improved the standard of living and changed consumer habits in the community, resulting in a clear increase in the volume of waste. This waste rots and decomposes, and produces harmful gases CO2 and Methane which are both greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Waste-To-Energy" incinerators and landfills contribute for higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions and overall energy than following the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra. Individual landfills include diverse geochemical setting with complex microbial ecosystems ranging from deeply buried anaerobic methanogenic systems to near surface aerobic systems.

All landfills evolve geochemically and microbiologically with changing environmental conditions which may be zoned or mixed, at various spatial and temporal scales, depending on the site.

Broadly, landfills are large scale landscape features consisting of millions of Mg of waste composed of both anthropogenic and natural organic matter, inorganic constituents, and buried local soils.

The need for the collection and sanitary disposal of municipal solid waste MSW was not recognized until recently. The fundamental difference between a dump and a landfill is that in a dump there is no attempt to separate the waste from the underlying soil or rock strata and where the whole extends to below the groundwater level.

Waste is dumped directly into the groundwater. A landfill is an engineered structure consisting of bottom liners, leachate collection and removal system and final covers. Landfills are designed both to store and to treat wastes. Much of the potential risk from MSW landfill results from the migration of contaminated leachate and landfill gas therefore the environmental impacts of the many landfills existing throughout the world cannot be ignored as we can see in figure 2.

Major emissions leachates and biogas are considerably affected by biological processes occurring in them if the MSW is disposed on the landfill with no pre-treatment, emissions develop during the landfill operation period, which are produced even after the landfill will have been closed. The migration of gas and leachate from the landfill body into the surrounding environment present a serious environmental concern, which include groundwater pollution, air pollution with impact on climate through, methane emissions and potential health hazards.

Landfill present long-term threats to ground water and surface water that are hydrologically connected by creating a toxic soup of industrial and home cleaning chemicals. Almost two third of landfill waste is biodegradable this waste rots and decomposes and produces harmful gases co2 and. Landfill also pollute the local environment including the water and the soil.

Landfill are some way that humans modify how soil form, by changing the soil forming factors of the climate, exposure and the soil organisms,. Landfill can produce objectionable odours and landfill gas can move through soil and collect in nearby buildings.

The gases produced in landfill is ammonia, sulphide, methane and carbon dioxide are of most concern. Unhealthy and illegal whats so bad about burning garbage, because smoke and ash pollute the air, water and food supply. Health is at risk for those who live within five kilometre 5km of landfill site. Hydrogen sulphide used as surrogate for all pollutants co-emitted from the landfills and death caused by lung cancer, as well as death and hospitalisation for.

When the landfill has reached its capacity , the waste is covered with clay and another plastic shield. Above that, several feet of dirt fill is topped with soil and plant which is shown in figure no. The most frequent treats following out from the operation of landfills have been described above. Now the time has come to take into account arguments advocating advantages of limited disposal of waste in landfills.

Especially in the long-term time horizon landfilling can transform the troublesome share of waste flow into the short term gas generation and provide long term carbon supply. However, an alternative removal of waste is currently subject of criticism by both environmentalists and landfill operations and suppliers. Sometimes the amount of waste determined for recycling, reuse or incineration exceeds the capacity.

Not all types of waste can be recycled or incinerated. For some of them landfill is the only choice and in case that the recycling facility or incinerator are out of the operation due to maintenance, repair and breakdown the waste should not remain in residential areas.

This shows that some types of waste have to be disposed in landfills even when recycling and reuse are in place. Landfill should be established by using sustainable method so that they not represent an environmental burden for future generation. The main advantage of sanitary landfill is that burying can produce energy and can be obtained by the conversion of landfill gas. The main products of landfills can be used as direct fuel for combustion or indirectly they can be processed into another fuel.

A major disadvantage of burying trash in landfill is the potential to pollute surrounding soil and groundwater with toxins. Landfills are bad for our health and environment. Leak, that means that runoff from landfills, carrying with it toxic chemicals from waste ends up in our waste supplies. Landfills have a distinctive effect on air pollution, nature, land and humans. Soil in the area may be saturated with chemicals or hazardous substances. About two-thirds of landfill waste contains biodegradable organic matter from households, business and industry.

As this material decomposes, it releases methane gas. As a potent greenhouse gas, methane traps up to 20 times more heat in the atmosphere compared with carbon dioxide the EPA states. In the U. Oftentimes the air surrounding landfill sites smells unpleasant, due to the decaying organic waste. According to the Romanian Ministry of Environment and Forests, the development of a landfill site means the loss of approximately 30 to species per hectare. Changes also occur in local species, with some mammals and birds being replaced by species that feed on refuse, such as rats and crows.

Vegetation changes also occur, regardless of the duration of the landfill site, as some plant species are replaced by others. Continuing to recycle will keep plastic and other materials out of the biosphere and put them to further use!

Avoid single-use plastics. Check out this article on single-use plastics and how to avoid them from the CU Zero Waste team here. Landfills lack the oxygen that compostable items need to fully decompose. By putting biodegradable items into the compost instead of the trash, huge amounts of waste can avoid the landfill.

Landfills help to keep our communities clean, but they also pose serious threats to the health of our environment. Working towards living a zero waste lifestyle will help to reduce our reliance on landfills, their impact on the environment, and their impact on human health and well-being.

Environmental Center. Search Enter the terms you wish to search for. The Hidden Damage of Landfills.