Landuse for Landfill Sites
...bulldozer before the next load is spread. When about 3m of garbage has laid down, it is covered by a thin layer of clean earth, which is also compacted. Pollution of surface and ground water is minimized by lining the fill, compacting and planting the cover, selecting proper soil, and placing wastes in sites that are not subject to flooding or high ground water levels. Landfills cause many problems to the environment and our health. Decomposing garbage produces two greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide and methane. These contribute to acid rain, ozone depletion, and air pollution. First we will focus on methane. Methane has a much greater effect than carbon dioxide, almost 21 times greater. This is practically the same amount of greenhouse gas emission from more than six million cars. Methane is an odorless, colorless gas generated by the decomposition of degradable organic waste. The amount of methane captured from Canadian landfill sites was increasing but now is slowly decreasing as you can see in Fig. ___ in the back of this report. Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless incombustible gas formed during organic decomposition. The decomposition of landfill gas can vary, but typically it is half methane and half carbon dioxide, with some traces of different compounds. Landfill sites begin producing these greenhouse gases in their first year, and continue producing for up to half a century. Another problem is disposable diapers. Over the first two years of babies’ life, you change over 5,000 diapers. In a country like Canada at least 85% of parents use disposable diapers, which easily means 5,000 easily becomes 1.7 billion diapers. These diapers are disposed into our already overflowing landfill sites. Besides th...