The Municipal Solid Waste Dilemma

Everyone buys things and sooner or later, we will throw it away. Or suppose we eat at Mc Donald's. After we are finished, we throw away our trash and never see or think of it ever again. In our fast passed world that we live in today, there are many people living in it and produce a lot of garbage and waste. The United States alone produces over 200 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste every year. That is equates to about 4.5 pounds of waste per person, per day. According to data from the EPA, about 35% of that is paper, 30% include yard trimmings and food scraps. Over 11% is plastic, 8% is metal, and the remainder contains wood, rubber, glass, and textiles. The main problem that we have is overflow of landfills. On top of this problem, there is a factor of contamination and pollution that carries on with garbage disposal. Because of this dilemma, we need solutions to these problems. Some solutions include recycling, source reduction, and other methods of waste disposal. In this proposal, I will talk briefly about waste management and how landfills are made and developed. I will further discuss governmental regulations that are taking place to make disposal safe and friendly to the environment.

About 27 percent of the trash is recycled, 16 percent is burned, and 57 percent is buried in landfills. A landfill by definition is a carefully designed structure built into or on top of the ground in which trash is isolated from the surrounding environment. This isolation is made possible with a bottom liner and covering of soil. Most landfills use a synthetic plastic liner to isolate the trash from the environment. In a landfill, not all of the land is used for dumping trash. Some areas are used for runoff collection ponds, leachate collection ponds, and drop-off stations. Other safety precautions are used such as studying the composition of underground. For a good landfill site, the ground should be watertight to prevent any leakage from reaching groundwater. Many landfills sink wells at various areas around the site to monitor the groundwater or to capture any escaping wastes. It is also important for a landfill not to be close to rivers, streams or other bodies of water so that any leachate from the landfill will not enter the groundwater.

When a site for a landfill is found, construction of a landfill can be made. The ground is dug for many feet and a plastic liner system is lined on the ground. This will prevent for leachate to contaminate ground water. Within this structure, a leachate collection pipe is harnessed to draw away any contaminated water to a leachate pond. On top, a layer of soil and gravel is placed so that it is ready to be covered with trash. To extend the life of a landfill and to use space efficiently, trash is tightly packed and stored in cells. Compression of trash is accomplished with special equipment and machinery. Basically, once a cell of compacted trash is full, a new one is made on top of the old one, and so on.

Once a landfill is full, it cannot take any more waste, but the process does not end there. The owner or operator still has to consider environmental problems that can occur. These precautions have to be taken so that no environmental threats come about in the future. Landfills can contain either hazardous or non-hazardous waste and may exist on public, private, or federal lands. The current EPA regulations require that landfill designs isolate waste from incoming rainwater. They are also to collect and treat water produced by the waste mass before the release into the environment. In addition, federal regulations require monitoring and maintaining of landfills for a minimum of 30 years after it is shut down. This is so that no problems occur with water contamination or other such hazards.

Local governments and private companies use three types of waste disposal which include incineration, chemical decomposition, and landfill burying. These methods have considerable economic and environmental impacts on the world. Such impacts include toxic ash from incineration and toxic air and water from emissions. These toxic byproducts are expensive to dispose of and harmful to the environment.

The main goal of a landfill is to obviously take garbage away from communities, but more importantly, to do it in a safe and least hazardous way. Stabilization occurs when liquid produced by waste mass or is no longer a pollution hazard to the groundwater below, gas production is negligible, and the majority of waste settlement has occurred. Normal landfills have slow rates of stabilization. The time period which waste is a risk for contamination of air and water is extended to decades. After a landfill is used, the use of the land is limited. Landfill costs have almost doubled in the last 15 years. Requirements for stabilization of waste have become increasingly strict. Because of this, acquiring a permit for a new landfill site has become more costly.

When we buy a product and make use of it, that material will eventually make its way in the landfills. The fact that the only pollution it makes is of taking up trash space is not true. The energy to make the product and to use it before it goes into a landfill is also sources of pollution. Total product life cycle is basically the life of a certain product. This cycle includes all stages and steps, starting from getting the raw material to the disposal of the material. Pollutants enter the environment when a product is made from raw materials through chemical waste and by-products. Product use also may cause pollutants to go in the air. For example, when using hair spray, the toxins go into the air. Even in the final stage, the discarding of the material, other contaminants can pollute the air from decomposition and of course, take up space in landfills.

It is obvious that many communities in America are faced with a garbage disposal problem. Although many landfills are reaching full capacity, few new landfills are being created, mainly because people do not particularly want to live near one, and modern landfills are now on a large scale basis. This allows more trash to be handled, which also leads to less of the smaller landfills. A solutions before was to burn and decompose the garbage to make more room in landfills. This was not a solution to pollution decrease because the combustion of trash causes more air pollution in the long run.

The place where a landfill is located will have an impact on the surrounding environment. To minimize any problems, location standards enforce where a landfill can be. For example, landfills cannot be located in areas that are prone to flooding. In addition, the landfill owner is required to prove that the facility is able to withstand major flooding. Landfills also have to control storm water run-off and make sure that the landfill is covered at the end of each day. Most landfills are required to install monitoring systems to detect groundwater contamination and are liable to fix any problem if any problems are detected. Sites are also prohibited from being located in fault areas such as zones where earthquakes are frequent or other unstable areas. The regulations also require operation competency of management of a landfill to ensure that all necessary steps are taken to make sure a landfill is safely operated. For example, landfills are prohibited from accepting certain types of wastes which include hazardous wastes and liquids. To meet these requirements, landfills have to keep control of the waste that gets dumped in the landfills.

All municipal solid waste landfills must also comply with EPA requirements about emissions of methane and non-methane gases. EPA recently issued a rule that regulates such emissions, including volatile organic compounds, hazardous air pollutants, and odorous compounds, from certain wastes.

To dispose of municipal solid waste, the companies and sites need environmentally friendly facilities. Besides the conventional dumping of garbage or incineration, there are other alternatives in controlling trash. A company called World Waste is commercializing a process that effectively and efficiently handles municipal solid waste. World Waste Technology is taking a step forward in environmental safety. Their process involves steam and heat using pressure to break down and sterilize the waste. This will all be done without any harmful emotions. The process entirely changes the composition of the waste and converts it into separable components of sterilized organic and inorganic materials. This new process will reduce costs economically, environmentally, and will be better off for humans in the long run. This type of process may be implemented nationwide and eventually worldwide.

New approaches to managing municipal solid waste are a solution. Such acts include source reduction and increasing incentives for recycling. Because people produce so much waste, it is the job of the landfill to keep everything in order. Therefore, EPA established a "minimum standards" to assure the safe and effective management of municipal solid waste landfills. These standards greatly reduce the possibility that landfills will become sources of pollution. There must be measures taken in enforcing these standards by the state and local governments. In the conclusion of source reduction, we are not putting the problem on how to decompose and do away with the waste, but to produce less waste as a whole. The less we use as a community, the less trash we will produce, which will lead to lessening the problems of municipal solid waste landfills.

As mentioned before, only about 27% of the total municipal solid waste is recycled. That means there are still recyclable materials that are being buried or burned at dump sites. This causes the possibly recyclable material to be dumped in landfills. The current practice of burying waste is not a good solution for today's needs and for the future. As the amount of municipal solid waste grows year by year, our way of life is going to determine the life style of the future.

Implementation by the government or extra funding for recycling by the government can be a solution to the overflow of trash and garbage in municipal solid waste landfills. The solution is not found in making landfills larger and not necessarily forming innovative procedures to handling waste. Further incentives for recycling or source reduction can lower solid wastes that end up in landfills, which in turn will make the world and environment a better place to live.