how big of a problem are landfills currently?

Question

statistics and resource pages included would be nice.

Answer 1

Not much ... unless you live near one.

Answer 2

Landfills are awesome. Currently, they can be tapped for methane to provide electricity, and in 10-20 years, recycling technology will be sufficiently advanced so that you can just scoop out a landfill with an excavator and dump it into a sorting machine that can extract and organize all the good stuff, and have clean dirt left over. Like the first Americans, we will use all the parts of a landfill.

Answer 3

A landfill is a place where we dump the trash we create as we live our lives. Here is another way: Landfills are a form of corporate welfare. Think about it -- Nearly every single product that ends up in a landfill comes from a corporation. A corporation makes a product, and then "society" pays for the end-cycle cost of the product by building a public landfill. Landfills take corporate disposal costs away from corporations and transfer them to "society".
It takes tax dollars to buy landfills, and as the region develops land for them is getting more expensive and harder to find. And despite newer technologies, landfills can create pollution problems, especially if toxic materials are involved.
This is a local site, but has information that anyone can use:http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/luesa/solid+waste/home.htm?header=www%2ewipeoutwaste%2ecom

Answer 4

Impacts of Landfills
A number of problems can occur from landfill operations. These impacts can vary: fatal accidents (e.g., scavengers buried under waste piles), infrastructure damage (e.g., damage to access roads by heavy vehicles), pollution of the local environment (such as contamination of groundwater and/or aquifers by leachate and residual soil contamination after landfill closure), to simple nuisance problems (e.g., dust, odour, vermin, or noise pollution).

Most modern landfills are operated with controls to manage problems such as these. Analysis and advice on common landfill operational problems are available in [2].

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Social issues
Some local authorities have found it difficult to locate new landfills. These authorities may charge a fee or levy in order to discourage waste and/or recover the costs of site operations. Some landfills are operated for profit as commercial businesses. Many landfills, however, are publicly operated and funded. For many areas, a well-run landfill is a hygienic, inexpensive solution to garbage disposal.

References
Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999, on the landfill of waste. Retrieved on August 29, 2005.
The Landfill Operation Management Advisor Web Based Expert System. Retrieved on August 29, 2005.
H. Lanier Hickman Jr. and Richard W. Eldredge. Part 3: The Sanitary Landfill. A Brief History of Solid Waste Management in the US During the Last 50 Years. Retrieved on August 29, 2005.
Geotechnical Engineering Directory

Answer 5

Well, I would say they are a pretty big problem, especially when you live near one. We had one not too far from our home and a lot of people that lived near it have died or are dying of cancer. I lost my own mother to pancreatic cancer 2 years ago. I'm sure that the landfill helped in some way to contribute to that.
This particular landfill was closed down years before when it was found to contain hazardous/toxic substances in it. The owners were found guilty of accepting hazardous wastes for their own profit. A little too late for my mother and others as well.

Answer 6

New York has a real problem because virtually all the garbage must be trucked out through the islands etc., and on trash days on the routes leading to landfills the chain of trucks is said to be several miles long. Here is a link about NY, and then a "topical overview" kid's link.
http://www.consumersunion.org/other/zero-waste/

http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/saving/recycling/solidwaste/primer.html

Answer 7

Landfills are time bombs that leach toxic chemicals into our ground water.Their are 56,000 landfills in the USA that could haunt every state in the union.Recent studies have provided leachate estimates varying from 1.4 million gallons per day to 2.0 million gallons per day at the Fresh kills landfill in New York city.In time, the toxic pollutants in garbage dumps escape into the environment,and complicated air,land,and water pollution hazards can result.