What does the future hold for the garbage in the landfills?

Question

What is being done or being planned to deal with the amount of garbage we produce and how full our landfills are becoming. What has happened to the recycling concept?

Answer 1

my town uses incinerators, no landfill.

Answer 2

Landfill gas is a mixture of Methane and Carbon dioxide, with some trace impurities such as hydrogen sulfide. While the exact concentrations differ from site to site, and in fact from location to location within a large landfill, the basic mix is pretty close to 50% methane and 50% CO2. This mixture will burn, but the heat release is quite low per unit of volume, so untreated landfill gas is not very useful as an energy source. The CO2 can, however, be removed through a number of different processes leaving a methane rich gas that can be used to generate power. This does, however, require fairly high levels of capital.

By law, most landfills in the US must have landfill gas collection systems. Because of the cost of treating, however, the collected gas is usually flared (burned).

Answer 3

Recycling is not always the environmentally correct choice. Many items we recycle come from abundant raw materials and are inert and harmless when dumped. It costs more to recycle these than to bury the used and manufacture the new from scratch. Glass is a perfect example; plastic runs a close second. If throwing away glass and plastic causes us to ever run out of sand and oil byproducts we can mine the landfills and recycle them all at once - it would be cheaper and easier than perpetual recycling. There's plenty of land for landfills, there's very little hazard remaining in modern landfills, and the economics and the environment often favor using them. Trillions are squandered on needless recycling.

Answer 4

First, I take issue with the poster who says recycling of materials is less efficient than manufacturing from raw materials. All that tells me is they are unaware of the benefits achieved from all 3 of the 3Rs. Specifically in the cases of glass and plastic containers, if the appropriate system is established to do it, the materials are Reused several times before they are Recycled. Reusing a glass bottle, like a beer or wine bottle several times takes only the energy to disinfect it, not nearly as much energy as is used for its initial manufacture.

As for landfills, there have been many processes and programs developed over the years to divert materials from landfill as well as isolating the landfills from affecting the surrounding environment. Waste Management is a big industry. But your question asks about the future of waste management, not the past, so I will need to get out my crystal ball and project a little based on the information I have today.

One day in the future I can see landfills not only being used to produce methane from rotting organic materials, but as above ground "mines" for recycleable materials. Organic sludge will be processed to neutralize and remove harmful chemicals, then "cooked" (sterilized) using the recovered methane gas and sold as fertilizer. This is current practice at many Water Treatment Plants already.

Inorganic materials which are economically valuable will be separated collected and transported to plants which will (hopefully) use biological processes (browse biomimicry) to separate and purify them such that they might be reused or recycled into new products.

The remaining materials, if uneconomical to Reuse or Recycle and environmentally benign, would be returned to a segregated landfill (in case it becomes economical to reprocess them at a later date), or they would be sent for processing to neutrallize any hazard then returned to landfill, or vitrified and sent to engineered containment facilities to isolate them from the environment.

BUT ... you have to realize the whole process starts with you! The first of the 3Rs is Reduce. It will only be economical to reduce our reliance on landfills if people start by making their purchasing choices with the waste produced from them in mind, and within in their own homes by sorting their waste streams. Most people don't know how and most homes aren't designed with waste management in mind.

Let's hope that changes.

Answer 5

When we bury garbage in a landfill, it starts to degrade without oxygen (anaerobically) and creates methane. Methane is potent greenhouse gas.

Over the last few years, many landfills have cleaned this methane gas and burned it to produce electricity. With new regulations to reduce greenhouse gases, the burning of methane to produce electricity will be more widespread.

Answer 6

This garbage in land fills turns into methane gas as it decays. This gas can be used to generate electric power from generators. The electric is then sold back to the electric company. We have one of these land fill sites in our area.

Answer 7

They could install a network pattern of perforated pipe between layers. As the garbage rots it produces methane gas. They could extract enough methane gas to run generators and produce "FREE" ELECTRICITY for YEARS.
Old dumps could be tapped in the same way.
So why don't they?
....you tell ME!

Answer 8

I KID YOU NOT

I moved to virginia because of the military. They took a landfill (a big hill of trash), covered it with grass, and called it a park!!!

And get this:
They called it "Mt. Trashmoore"!!

*hangs head low*

Answer 9

(b.absent),is right most methane is burned off freely at landfills.I've always wondered the same thing why not use it?That's true recycling....

Answer 10

You can produce garbage in many whys!! Do your part..reduce!!