Is it better to Landfill or Recycle Waste?

Question

Although Landfil obviously isn't great for the earth, minimal energy is used to process the waste, hence using less energy. Some landfill sites also produce gas which can be harnessed to provide useful energy. Once full up, the sites are often grassed over and turned into nature reserves or parks (like Rainham landfill site east london)

Recycling is good if it stops new natural resources being used, but most recycled goods still need a certain percentage of new material. Then there is all the energy required to sort and process it to make it into something new. Even then the recycled goods can only be second grade due to all of the impurities in it which cant be removed (you cant make new cars from recycled steel)

What i'm trying to ask is that is it always a good idea to recycle without knowing what are the processes and where it ends up?

Answer 1

recycle.
use renewable energy sources.
make less stuff.
there's too much unnecessary stuff.

Answer 2

Never Recycle. It is like saying because I R&R&R, I am good. WRONG.
You are only doing less bad.
I love my "environmental friends" that recycle religiously and then drive 60 min to work.
Why should a shampoo bottle be designed to last longer than humanity and the people that think they are environmental feel ok by recycling it without asking why it is designed in the first place to be in-destructible?
Throw away everything to the landfills.
At the current use of resources that is the only thing we are leaving future generations.
They will be pissed that we used all the oil without regard for the future, so might as well leave them presents in the form of landfills.
Landfills = the only future resources

Answer 3

Well there isn't really a choice but to recycle, as the country is running out of landfill sites! There are pros and cons about everything, but looking at the current status of things, recycling is the best bet for the future generations.. Recycling can produce over a million things - not necessarily cars, but I'm sure some bright japanese person can find some sort of solution!

Answer 4

Let me draw you to a train of thought...

I'm in my local city centre drinking a can of coke. I finish my refreshing and stomach digesting beverage and then go to dispose of it.

Naturally from birth we are told to put rubbish in the bin. Being the UK without good access to recycling points the bin here is the most realistic option presented to the everyday city go-er.

Having done this the bin is then collected and taken to the local rubbish pile / landfill where it is both harmful to the environment and as you pointed out, a waste of good resources.

Alternatively, I could throw it on the ground descretely. Naturally you'd think this a worse option since your now polluting your local streets and not even using the landfill option!!

However, The UK has a large population of unemployed street dwellers.. These indivbiduals I have witnessed seeking out such 'cans' and collecting them. They then take these can's to the local recycling terminal where they recieve a small subsidy for each (or a number of) can(s).

Now our can which we threw on the street is being not only recyled, but also aiding the unemployment sector and local 'street dwellers' (homeless) earn some cash, as well as reducing council refuse collection bills (small but cumlatively significant over time) which in turn reduces the required council taxation on the local constituency (in an ideal world).


So, what I'm trying to say is the view on recycling is down to perspective. From one perspective its indisputably good for not using up so many new resources. However on the flip-side, to do so is not only costly but also potentially a source of pollution - especially in the case of plastics.

You clearly are aware of basic problems with recycled goods compared to new material ones but you must also consider the economic impacts and the realistic viability of recycling. We all know the planets natural resources are dwindling.. but its still much cheaper in this mad world, to keep harvesting these resources than to recycle.

In order to make recycling viable the technology and quite importantly, peoples attitude towards recycling, must change. Landfill gas as a fuel is a good economicly viable mid-way solution but its not the full recycling. Anybody can claim great solutions to this problem but they must also be viable and applicaple.

We presently have a great deal of landfill sites which would cost an unrealisticly approachable fortune to sort out and recycle. Therefore utalising the landfill gas technology here is the best solution. However as said its not the full recycle and so this is an aim for the future.

In short, recycling is good for the Earth in terms of reducing the harvesting of natural resources. It does at present pollute a bit in the process and so this is a negative feature. However, overall its good. Working towards this recycling world is indesputably a good target which should be pursued, but we're not there yet and so at present, your question is a good one. Investigate it through your council and the recycling terminals.

Answer 5

Landfill and Recycling are both used by most countries in waste management. the diference is the percentage of usage relative to each other. e.g. 40% recycle - 60% landfill and so on..
the variation of who is bigger in % depends on various parameters, some countries doesn't have too much land to waste as landfills so they go for other options as in Japan.
also costs play a big role..some countries energy resources (for recycling) are higher in cost than others...in short it is not about what is better in general but what is best for this community in particular..

Answer 6

There are both advantages and disadvantages to each.

Landfilling, is, perhaps, the most effortless, and probably the cheapest, method of getting rid of our wastes. However, it has disadvantages since it requires huge land areas, serves as breeding grounds for vectors of diseases such as rodents, and it risks pollution of ground water, a very important natural resource. Sanitary engineers implement precautions to prevent these setbacks.

Recycling, on the other hand, requires a lot of effort, time, money and discipline to implement. There are also environmental setbacks to recycling though it is generally accepted as the most environmentally-friendly means of dealing with wastes. Steels and plastics, when recycled, go through some processes, such as melting, that release toxic gases into the atmosphere. Washing garbage materials also requires a lot of water which, when left unchecked, eventually goes to pollute rivers, seas, and other water resources. Even the collection of garbage and transporting them to recycling facilities require large trucks that run on engines which emit a great deal of carbon dioxide.

Recycling is not always the best option. We should also look into reduction of usage of materials which are potentially detrimental to the environment, composting, and effective and efficient use of resources.

Answer 7

Landfills also are going to be mined for materials someday, so we can use the gas for electricity now and have the iron, aluminum,copper, peat(like material) and plastics for later...win win? As far as recycling goes they have processes that dissassociate PETE plastic completly back into the original components so the can be re-made like new, we already make new cars from scrape steel (and always have), and rubber can be recycled, and its much eisier to remelt aluminum than it is to mine and process Bauxite for new. Buckminster Fuller said we already have all the material we need we just need to learn how to get it back to reuse it, read some of his works and you'll see that he was right in the 20's 30's 40's 50's 60's 70' 80's and today, we just don't listen big enough!

Answer 8

A simple answer is to consider the recent increases in landfill tax by the government; emphasising the inefficient use landfills have, and hence trying to decrease the amount of material being put into them and persuading ppl to recycle further.

Answer 9

Recycling is better. Landfill damages the earth and the environment through ozone layer emissions. Remember that 50% of items we bury in the ground are incombustible materials like a tin. Platic bags take many years to rot completely, rubbers take even longer.

Answer 10

It is absolutely vital that we recycle, as it uses a lot less energy to recylce than to make from new.

Also if we didn't recycle we'd run out of land suitable for land fill in only a few years, then we have no where for the waste to go.

You need to

Recycle
Reuse
Reduce

If everyone just recycled all of their plastic, glass, cans, foil and paper we would make a massive impact on the amnount of waste thrown away.

I think we need more of these bin bugs, and we need to make recycling a statutory obligation.

Answer 11

Well, conservation uses the less energy... buying products that use less materials would help... and then recycling (properly) does use more energy however it would be worth it since we'll use less energy refining and making new products. less trees to cut down for example. landfilling should only be a last reort because this could be a site of hazardous waste. and it may be true that landfills produces gas (methane), these gases could be unstable and unsafe (methane is highly combustible). so I think we should find ways to use our resources more efficiently.