Landfilling
Hi everyone!
I hope that this idea to split the discussion in several and focused posts is useful. Therefore, avoiding long introductions, today it is time to talk about landfilling consequences.
Landfilling waste produces a considerable amount of gases, of which Methane and Carbon Dioxide are the most common. The thing is that CH4 and CO2 belong to the GHGs group (Greenhouse Gases) so, their production is strictly connected to the global warming issue (2014 IPCC's "Synthesis Report", page 4, 43 and 116 and 2014 DEFRA report "Energy from Waste", paragraph 37).
A work conducted by Daskalopoulos et al. (1997) shows concrete data about the amount of Methane and Carbon Dioxide in UK due to waste landfilling: the former is the 63.8% of the total volume while the latter is the 33.6%. Thereafter, besides global warming, the most relevant problems linked to landfilling are intuitively detailed by the authors as water pollution, risk of explosion (due to gas accumulation) and health problems (Daskalopoulos et al. 1997: 214 and 215). The same bad consequences can be found in other papers: El-Fadel et al. (1997) actually include also air pollution and vegetation damage.
In addition to the gases, both these papers talk about the leachate, which is the liquid result of the waste degradation. Leachate does not have a big influence in terms of global warming as much as gas does, but it is widely taken into account when it is related to water and soil pollution.
Again, the same list is highlighted in a really interesting report edited by DEFRA in 2011: "Applying the Waste Hierarchy: evidence summary" describes, for each different kind of waste (paper, aluminium, plastic and so on), what the favourite disposal methods are: landfilling is again the last favoured option and the reason is because of the high health, environment and climate change impacts that it brings.
Finally, there is one more aspect to account for: land availability. We have to consider that also the waste production is consequently growing together with the population. Therefore the landfill sites are getting full and there is an actual need to find new places to install new sites and new rubbish. A study conducted by King et al. (2006) tackles this issues and shows how the available land space is predicted to finish. Moreover, the three researchers lead their work explaining how, also in the land availability context, the general concept of recycling is the key tool to treat waste in the next future.
Again, the same list is highlighted in a really interesting report edited by DEFRA in 2011: "Applying the Waste Hierarchy: evidence summary" describes, for each different kind of waste (paper, aluminium, plastic and so on), what the favourite disposal methods are: landfilling is again the last favoured option and the reason is because of the high health, environment and climate change impacts that it brings.
Finally, there is one more aspect to account for: land availability. We have to consider that also the waste production is consequently growing together with the population. Therefore the landfill sites are getting full and there is an actual need to find new places to install new sites and new rubbish. A study conducted by King et al. (2006) tackles this issues and shows how the available land space is predicted to finish. Moreover, the three researchers lead their work explaining how, also in the land availability context, the general concept of recycling is the key tool to treat waste in the next future.
After this brief summary about landfill implications, I have to keep following up the “Waste Hierarchy”: as explained in the previous post, I want to reach to top of the triangle starting from its base. The next step is thus related to incineration, which will be the topic of the next post.
See you soon on RE-cycling!
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