Land Fill Health Risks and Landfill Sites Analysed

No-one, or almost nobody, likes a land fill. But, that doesn't alter the fact that Land fill is one of the most widely used methods of waste disposal of civil solid waste ( MSW ) and business and general commercial waste ( C&I Waste ) around the world. Even when a council recycles a big percentage there may still be a third of the waste going into a land fill.

As well as that more and more are being built as society makes more and more rubbish.

After being land filled, the refuse rots through a series of combined physico-chemical and biological changes, that may take a period of more than 150 years.

Land fill is just the disposal of waste into or onto land. Today, in the developed countries land fill sites are constructed and operated to strict technical standards in order to reduce environmental effects.

Some waste in these countries never even gets sent to landfills any more. For instance, waste from electric and electronic kit, white products ( e.g, washing machines, refrigerators ) and unsafe waste ( e.g, batteries, medicines, fluorescent tube lighting ) must not be thrown in the bin, but get left at the various civic amenity centres round the country for recycling and disposal.

Where landfill is properly controlled and minimised there are bring centres in all areas for the recycling of glass, cans and some plastics. Unfortunately, in the states land fill control is given a low concern with the result the landfills make plenty of pollution and emissions of dust flies and rodents such as rats, are common.

Land fill fires are commonplace on the poorly controlled landfills and yet more pollution happens when dump fires produce poisonous smoke as they burn plastic materials. Such fires are uncommon in the U. S. , Europe and other more wealthy nations. Land fill wishes far better control in most developing nations and it isn't expensive control the land fills better, when compared to he disease and suffering due to bad land fills.

Waste disposal practices and the regulation of land fill sites are equivalent in the developed nations.

Landfills are a little like bathtubs. Like bathtubs, they leak 2 ways : out the bottom or ott. To get round this the leachate must be removed before it builds up pressure. So, leachate is removed from the bottom layer of the Land fill and put into storage tanks.

The leachate is then pumped back into the Land fill, allowing it to flow over the waste continually. It filters through the land fill, picking up impurities as it travels. The bottom layer of the rubbish heap rests upon a land fill liner. The liner regularly has several layers. The top, or primary, liner may be , for instance, a composite section with 60-mil high-density polyethylene ( HDPE ) and a bentonite subliner.

Leachate is produced by a mix of liquids from waste material, rain-water and other liquids that are produced during the decomposition of waste. It may contain contaminates that would pollute water supplies if allowed to enter the underground water in the rocks below.

Depending on characteristics of the Land fill and the wastes it contains, the leachate might be relatively safe or highly toxic.

Recirculation of leachate increases the rate of production of landfill gas, which is good if this can then be used to generate power. Waste compaction is good because it allow the maximum volume of waste to be put in the land fill, and increases stability while reducing settlement. Unfortunately, good waste compaction also slows gas production as it increases the density of the land fill contents, decreasing the rate at which water can infiltrate the waste. The rate of gas production is higher if heavy rainfall and/or permeable land fill covers introduce extra water into a land fill.

To make sure that a land fill doesn't pollute the groundwater below it, groundwater monitoring wells are installed throughout each site to ensure that Land fill operations aren't impacting groundwater quality.

Usually, every one of the wells is sampled on a once a month basis, with the results sent to the Environmental Protection (EPA) and Water Resources Board. Groundwater monitoring stations constantly test for land fill seepage, often for so long as 50 years after Land fill closure. That is needed since there's little oxygen and moisture in Land fills, garbage doesn't break down very quickly.

Additionally, a Land fill gas system will be installed to gather gas through wells and treat the gas by burning in enclosed flame flares or by other authorized strategies such as converting the gas to electricity.

Air quality is monitored downwind of landfills, with further samples are also taken 'upwind' of the land fill. These samples are referred to as the 'background' samples, because they show gases that are normally present but aren't produced by the Land fill.

Methane has twenty-one times the global warming potential of CO2, therefore in the short term and in the case of Land fills, it is better to have CO2 going into the atmosphere than methane. Land fill gases travel freely for great distances into the environment. Methane burns extremely easily and frequently is used as natural gas for cooking and heating. It is lighter than air and collects at the pinnacle of enclosed spaces.
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