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Are Toxins Migrating From

Landfill Sites?

There’s more than a bunch of rubbish to be concerned about at landfill sites, and a whole lot more than methane to be contained. Consider what trash, some of it dating back decades, is made of. In many cases, the breakdown components of the furniture polish, hair spray and pesticides that people threw out with abandon are just now becoming known to environmental scientists.

The pace of creation for man-made chemicals began its steep acceleration as early as the 1910s, during and after World War One. This just happens to be about the time that the concept of a “sanitary” landfill was popularized in North America. Like the ability of these landfills to expand and really cram the waste in, the mid-century was a time of great expansion on several fronts: novel chemical creation, consumer consumption and waste generation.

What remains unknown is what happens to these chemicals when their byproducts interact in the seepage that has been shown to flow from nearly all landfills.

Toxins from Landfill Sites

There’s more than a bunch of rubbish to be concerned about at landfill sites, and a whole lot more than methane to be contained. Consider what trash, some of it dating back decades, is made of. In many cases, the breakdown components of the furniture polish, hair spray and pesticides that people threw out with abandon are just now becoming known to environmental scientists.

The pace of creation for man-made chemicals began its steep acceleration as early as the 1910s, during and after World War One. This just happens to be about the time that the concept of a “sanitary” landfill was popularized in North America. Like the ability of these landfills to expand and really cram the waste in, the mid-century was a time of great expansion on several fronts: novel chemical creation, consumer consumption and waste generation.

What remains unknown is what happens to these chemicals when their byproducts interact in the seepage that has been shown to flow from nearly all landfills.

Landfill Space Running Out?

Since the most massive shut down of sanitary landfill spaces in US history in 1993, there have been very few new landfills created to take on an ever-increasing total volume of waste. Though rates of recycling have gone up considerably since then, the total rate of waste generation has also increased, to make the level of solid waste that arrives at landfills to remain nearly even or slightly higher over that same period.

The lack of new landfills is partly due to increased regulation in the permitting process for the creation of new facilities. While landfills were once little more than “rubber-stamped” into existence throughout much of the 20th century, environmental science matured in the latter third of the century and identified the true threat to water supplies (in particular) that emanated from landfills that were once assumed to be quite safe.

Federal Regulation of

Landfills

One of the reasons that the construction of new landfill facilities as slowed down considerably is due to legislation at the state, provincial and federal level. These laws have not only mandate more restrictive rules on the owners of landfills, but are often conflicting with state and provincial laws and regulations.

Many of the regulations passed in the 1990s caused an unprecedented number of landfills to simply shut down, rather than be held liable for updates and fines relating to past problems or updates required to continue on. As a result, the total number landfills decreased and, according to the “law” of supply and demand, the price to deposit in those existing landfills increased significantly.

In particular, many landfills that shut down before 1993, in an effort to avoid fines for water and soil pollution did so in such a rush that their efforts to contain the “final product” were grossly inadequate, leading to even higher costs that owners hoped to recoup from their remaining facilities.

Recycling and Alternative

Energy

One of the most exciting things about recycling as a social phenomena, is the ability of waste reduction schemes to help foster other “green” technologies and programs. Given the serious social, climatological and political ramifications of reliance upon fossil fuels in North America, anything that helps encourage the use of alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, tidal, geothermal and hydro power is a massive benefit to society.

The connection between recycling and alternative energy, aside from both being “green” solutions to waste and pollution problems, is political as well as personal. For instance, someone who is motivated to be passionate about recycling is likely to be an advocate of carbon-neutral power. This is true for governments as well as individuals. There are even technologies that can actually produced bio-fuel from previously landfilled materials such as plastic and organic-waste derived methane.

Welcome to the Recycling

Blog

This blog is a collaborative effort between four very dedicated people that have been working together online for over 5 years. You can find out more on the About Us page.

The Recycling Blog is a companion to our main website on this topic located at: iCanteachu Recycling and a part of the growing iCanteachu network of blogs and websites.

The below video will give you a good overview of some of the areas we will be covering on this Recycling Blog.

We would encourage you to take advantage of our free report titled “Recycling Works…a simple daily plan” by filling in the form on the top right of this page. Doing so will also subscribe you to our newsletter so that you can easily stay up to date with everything we are doing.

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Regards,
Michael Silva
Jeanne Caccia-Silva
Keith Dennis
Isabel Dennis