Is there an alternative to just burying our household waste in a hole in the ground.?

Question

For future generations to worry about our total and utter disregard for our enviroment. I Think it is a bloody discusting the amount of waste still dumped in a hole in the ground and covered with soil. What is the alternate. There MUST be a better way guys.

Answer 1

buy less
buy things with less packaging
compost
join freecycle
spend money on experiences--like movies or massages or travel and not on stuff

find out who's found a use for whatever bothers you the most (plastic containers, old electronics, etc) and ship your waste to him/her

Use only green products--most have little or recyclable containers

Answer 2

I'm not sure if this is a BETTER way. But it is still an alternative. Incineration is popular in countries with no space available for landfills. The trash is thrown into the incinerator and burned, significantly reducing the volume. However, the ashes must then be buried or stored for the long term. This is not a popular option in the US for two reasons. The first is the health hazard coming from small particulate matter released into the atmosphere during the incineration. This causes public disapproval. The other reason is that it is economical to use landfills. North America has abundant expanses of land, and it is cheaper to buy more land and set up a modern landfill than it is to obtain a permit for and operate an incinerator.

In addition, we do not just dump our garbage in a hole. All modern landfills must be lined at the bottom (usually with clay) to prevent contaminated water from entering the groundwater system.

I am not sure if incineration is a good idea. I honestly believe that source reduction is the only way to effectively manage solid waste. No one will fully understand the effects of incineration for quite a while since it is relatively new.

Technically, the best way is to end the disposable mindset. Stop using grocery bags from the store. Bring your own cloth bags. Buy things that have little or no packaging. When you pack your lunch, use a reusable lunch bag with reusable containers for your sandwich, etc. If everyone did that, then we could make the landfills last quite a while longer, and by that point, we could know if incineration is a good idea or not! So there's the answer, this is the better way.

Answer 3

Sure, there are plenty of options, from recycling to generating energy from buring trash.

I think the key however is to have both "Wast-to-Energy" plants as well as recycling, perhaps one using the others energy making the recycling plant sustainable. Now that we have the technology to effectively stop the pollution that would normally come from burning waste materials, Wast-to-Energy plants are a viable option.

In fact they stop over 40 million tons of greenhouse gasses from entering the earths atmosphere each year. This is because they avoid the release of methane that otherwise would be emitted when trash decomposes, and the release of CO2 that would be emitted from generating electricity from fossil fuels.

Answer 4

Recycling requires the cooperation of the people. A lot of people still seem to regard recycling as something only crazy eco-warrior hippy types do. My housemate doesn't show the slightest interest in recycling; asking when he first came: "Do you want me to recycle?". What I felt inside my head then was, "NO! I want you to WANT to recycle!". We need to be less apathetic about the whole issue: dumping resources that can be put to good use is plain stupid.
HEY! Tobermory has an incinerator: uses it to burn weeds which can't be composted or all the compost would be full of weed seeds!

Answer 5

it can be dangerous sometimes due to some of the stuff LEAKING/leaching from the landfill into waterways (surface or under ground water) and that can be dangerous for us.

Obviously there is INCINERATION but that pollutes the AIR, I mean if they came up with REALLY really really GOOD FILTERS perhaps incineration would be a choice to consider... but further imagine a DEVICE/process that would BREAK STUFF down to an elemental level.. imagine a MACHINE based on VAST SCIENCE that would reduce all the myriads of stuff into simple elements ~ so like on one end of the machine all the "junk"(combined stuff of VASt CHEMICAL equations/compounds etc ) goes in and on the other end piles of each element that the "junk" was reduced to comes out ...

First and foremost we would obviously wish to recyle as much as we could feasibly do, and we would want to REDUCE our waste from the standpoint of better packaging or what have you... maybe having more stuff that is REUSABLE...

Answer 6

There are so many alternatives, but, unfortunately, they are expensive, unless people cooperate. In Germany, when you go shopping, there are big dumpsters for people to recycle things: green glass, brown glass, clear class, etc. Food and such can be used for compost. Paper, plastic, cardboard, etc., can be recycled. Electronics can be recycled. Some place burn waste for energy, etc.

Answer 7

You're probably living on the discarded trash of earlier generations right now. Is that causing you any problems that the matter is breaking down being slowly returned to the circle of life every time it rains? I want to know what you would do if someone returned to yesteryear and started burning his autumn leaves, grass clippings and daily trash. You know houses used to all include incinerators. Time marches on. Love it or leave it.

Answer 8

Recycling.

Answer 9

Recycle, use less, Burn it! Burning some people say releases gases but if we plant more trees the trees will take care of it! I don't know why the stupid goverment does not do more about the whole "GREEN" things. They should.

Answer 10

Of course there is!