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| Landfills:� A Major Garbage Problem | |||
| ����������� A landfill is a polluting, noisy, smelly, disease-causing human-made cavity in our mother earth and should be obsolete in the twenty-first century.�� This cavity is a place where a city can deposit their garbage that contains 40% paper, 18% yard wastes, 15% plastic and glass, 15% food wastes, and the remaining 12% in wood, metal, and other miscellaneous matter (by mass).� The municipal government acts on the assumption that once the garbage is in a landfill, it is out of sight, will not pollute the surrounding environment, and is not a problem. Too many times a potential landfill site is permitted in Tiny Town, USA for an overbearing, ever growing large metropolis.������ | |||
| ����������� First of all, landfills can bring in heavy traffic, because of the transportation of tons of garbage a day to the landfill.� The frequency of dump truck arrival to the landfill site depends on the amount of garbage it contains and whether it is accepted by the waste management operations that is at the landfill site.� In addition to noise and annoyance of dump truck traffic, an increased number of trucks can have significant impacts on traffic flow and public safety.� Garbage trucks can also cause deterioration of highways and roads, due to their weight and size. | |||
| ����������� Second, landfills are highly odoriferous.� A resident who is downwind of a landfill would most likely smell the newly collected garbage that has arrived at the site.� One of the most convincing arguments against landfilling is to open a garbage can and take a whiff of week-old rubbish.� Now, think of smelling that all the time!� Get me a clothespin! | |||
| ����������� Third, during the daily operations of a landfill, the bulldozers contribute to large amounts of dust in the surrounding environment.� When the garbage trucks are on the roads, they also create clouds of dust, especially when it is an unpaved road. Families would need to seal their windows of their homes permanently. | |||
| ����������� Fourth, some public health concerns of landfills include disease-causing organisms.� It is no surprise that the rodent population is increased around landfills; however, most people do not know that seagulls, also attracted to garbage in coastal areas, can cause human disease. | |||
| ����������� Fifth, landfills are not quiet.� Noise pollution is an increasing concern of neighbors of landfills.� Psychologists now report that consistent high levels of noise in our environment significantly hampers our mental health.� The heavy equipment of a typical large city landfill operates at least eight hours a day.����� | |||
| ����������� Sixth, landfills create economic difficulties for surrounding communities.� Landfills can decrease the property values in the area that are in close proximity to it.� No one wants to live near a landfill. In a paper entitled, Assessing the True Cost of Landfills, they report that the siting of a landfill in an area significantly decreases property values within two to four kilometers (one to two miles) of the landfill.� In some areas, decreased property value was found up to about eight kilometers of the landfill. | |||
| ����������� Last and perhaps the worst of all, landfills leach toxins into the groundwater.� Ground water is one of our most precious resources.� The potential for polluting nearby water wells is enormous when garbage and chemicals are buried. Clay and plastic liners utilized to protect the surrounding subsurface environment can and do have a history of failure.� Scientists tell us our earth is constantly moving and faults or cracks are created.� Leachate, a liquid that is a combination of rainwater and additional liquids originated by the decomposing garbage, seeps through the clay faults.� Plastic liners fail due to the chemical composition of the leachate, which eventually decompose that material.� High density polyethylene, the best plastic available, can become brittle and crack from common substances as margarine, vinegar, and shoe polish-just to name a few.�� ����������� � | |||
| ������� So, why does the United States still use landfills to dispose of their trash?� Because landfills are the easiest and least expensive way of getting rid of our trash.� Americans like to think their trash as in terms of out of sight, out of mind.� We have other options; the best, of course is recycling.� Is it more expensive?� You bet, but worth every penny.� We must encourage humankind to reduce packaging and use recyclable materials through laws and tax incentives.� Research needs to be encouraged through government grants. Progress in recycling efforts has been moving forward in this generation. The word recycle was not in Webster's Dictionary in 1967; just thirty years ago. It is now a household word that most five-year-old children know the meaning.� But we have so much more to do.� America must stop being the greatest 'throwaway society' in the history of the human race and become a reuse society.� This should be one of our supreme gifts to future generations. | |||