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Meanwhile, “forever chemicals” (also known as PFAs), are aptly named.

In 2018, we sent 2.8 million tons of tech to landfills. Electronic waste, for example, contains various types of dangerous chemicals, including lead, cadmium, beryllium, mercury, and brominated flame retardants. These toxins can seep into soil and groundwater aquifers and affect local ecosystems, animal-life, and our drinking water. While the methane goes up into the atmosphere, the poisonous, wastewater sludge called leachate goes down-and while landfills effectively work like a big sink for liquids, it’s impossible for operators to contain it all. But the downstream impact may cost even more-and our discarded technology and something called “forever chemicals” are to blame. Through its oxygen-deprived breakdown, organic material emits methane as a byproduct, making landfills volatile and gassy. For that reason, waste-both organic and inorganic-breaks down significantly slower in landfills than it would in nature. In a landfill, however, food, grass clippings, and other organic material are densely packed and thus decompose with the absence of oxygen (anaerobically).

Under the right conditions, this would enter into a composting process, where it decomposes to become nutrient-rich organic material, often called “black gold” by farmers and gardeners for its benefits. And 21st-century waste can be disastrous for the environment.įirst, we’ll mention the natural stuff: Food and yard trimmings make up roughly 34% of all MSW. What we throw away matters, and when it fails to get recycled (the case 68% of the time), it often heads to be covered over in the landfill. However, our waste today is different our trash heaps can be toxic to humans. Our practice of locking our waste far away from people, deep in the earth seems like the most sanitary option available. Waste management has an inelegant history -like how 15th-century Paris was plagued with stinking piles of garbage directly outside its city walls. That’s equivalent to more than the CO2 emissions from 20.6 million passenger vehicles driven for one year or the emissions from powering 11 million homes over the same period.Īside from greenhouse gases, the landfill-caused environmental crisis runs deeper. In fact, 2018 numbers reflect that MSW landfills are the third-largest source (15.1 percent) of human-related methane emissions in the U.S. The uncaptured methane, for one, is a major contributor to climate change, 84 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, many landfills aren’t properly managed, and the process is inefficient. From this process, some naturally occurring methane gas and toxic liquids called leachate (which we’ll come back to) can be extracted. Properly managed, landfills accept MSW and other materials from haulers for a fee, layering it in an excavated hole in the ground, covering with soil, and leaving the waste to decompose. Landfills, on the other hand, are maintained and regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. What is a Landfill?īefore we get to the Titanic-like collision course on the horizon (or rather, under it), we’ll clarify the concept of a landfill, not to be confused with a “dump.” A dump is largely a relic of the past-unregulated, unchecked excavated land where waste of all sorts was piled with no rhyme or reason. From hazardous waste to running out of space, we may be overwhelmed by the rising cost of landfills this century. But inevitably, major problems will surface. Worse, yearly MSW production has been steadily climbing, year over year since recording first began in the 1960s-and the US has never had a national recycling rate (recovered material + composting) higher than 35%.įor many Americans, “out of sight, out of mind” is good enough. What if we told you the biggest cover-up operation in America had to do with where we send trash? All over the country, subterranean garbage heaps called landfills are rising, fueled by the 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) the US produces each year.Īccording to the EPA, in 2018, almost half of that trash (49.997%) went to landfills around the country. This post was originally posted March 2018 and has updated with recent data and analysis March 2021.