Landfill Is Bad For The Environment: Would We Be Better Just Littering?
March 10th, 2010 | 
Author: Why not just throw our litter on the floor? It would eventually return to nature: decompose more quickly than Landfill. How is piling plastic bags full of rubbish, on top of thousands of other plastic bags full of rubbish in landfill sites better for the Environment?
(will take a few mins to download)
Explanations about how we process rubbish all the problems associated with it
and what may be done in future and all problems. There is no evidence to suggest
that landfill is not a problem. There is more evidence to suggest there are more
problems than we knew about.
Climate Change and Waste
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/dirty_truths.pdf
Climate Change and Stopping OVER Consumption
•Waste prevention -the best environmental option, avoiding resource use
•Reuse -reduces need for resources and manufacturing
•Recycling -reduces need for extraction and processing of new resources
•Composting -returns nutrients and structure to soils; displaces other fertilizers; sequesters carbon; and, in the case of anaerobic digestion, produces methane which can be used as a 100% renewable energy source.
•Then we must phase out the rest -the residual waste, which is currently landfilled or incinerated
–Phasing out residual waste is the right long term direction, both for resource efficiency and climate change.
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/event_presentations/waste_and_climate_change.pdf
Biodegradeable Wastes Returning to the soil
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/way_forward_on_biowaste.pdf
Campaign Guide. This is old research but demonstrates current arguments. Simply states why landfill sites are not well managed.
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/landfill_campaign_guide.pdf
Waste Stream and New Technologies and their problems (follow links within)
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/new_waste_technologies.pdf
anaerobic digestion
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/anaerobic_digestion.pdf
Why putting waste on the ground is a great idea (like in French Vineyards) where it is not even sorted before placing on ground.
Abstract gives sources Utilization of Urban Wastes in Crop Production
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0006-3568%2819710615%2921%3A12%3C561%3AUOUWIC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage
Stabilization of organic matter during composting.
http://www.woodsend.org/pdf-files/s.houout_CSU_vol13No1.pdf
Environmental and Health Impact of Solid Waste Management Activities
By Ronald E. Hester, Roy M. Harrison
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=tP6BEJBUD_8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=France+Vineyard+refuse+mulch&ots=dJheQ62BXG&sig=HrBjTWbiQzmGCKWhiu0tcTCf_KM#PPA211,M1
Seastedt T R 1984 The role of microarthropods in decomposition and mineralization process. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 29, 25–46.
St John T V 1980 Influence of litter bags on growth of fungal vegetative structures. Oecologia 46, 130–132.
Stevenson F J 1986 Cycles of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, micronutrients. John Wiley and Sons, New York, USA.
TSBF 1993 Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility: A Handbook of Methods. Second ed. Eds. J M Anderson and J S I Ingram. CAB, Wallingford, UK.
SO In the worst case scenario even if you do not compost just place the waste on the land, after all the organic material decomposes you are left with the plastics tins, glass, etc which does not biodegrade. This is already ‘presorted’ so it would just be a case of collecting up these materials for recycling.
Not looking like such as stupid idea is it now?
Posted in Green Q&A | 
Tags: anaerobic digestion, campaign guide, climate change, dirty truths, environmental option, fertilizers, foe, guide pdf, landfill sites, new resources, plastic bags, renewable energy source, residual waste, resource efficiency, resource reports, resource use, term direction, uk resource, waste prevention, waste stream
The way they create landfills these days, they are no longer bad for the environment.
Mostly they build golf courses on top of them.
Anything’s better than littering.
Modern landfills aren’t very bad for the environment – not only are they used as a source of energy to power homes, they become fertile ground to grow plants in the future, and there are people who sort through all the trash to find anything recyclable. Remember though: reduce, reuse and recycle is in that order for a reason.
yea instead of having a few landfills lets make our whole world one
If people want to continue the same standard trash cycle, then that would work.
People need to break the cycle and buy into the reuse/recycle program. In many communities, most things that end up in the trash are recyclable. If people would just educate themselves about what is and isn’t recyclable and change their routine, landfill trash would be drastically reduced.
Recycling is a business, and because of that not all things are recyclable. Communities will only recycle items they will be able to process and sell. Therefore, people need to start buying recycled goods. If not, the whole cycle breaks down. Communities will stop accepting certain items and we might as well litter.
I hope you’re joking……..
If you keep a landfill dry many of the organic materials such as paper will not break down.
Effectively that is a way to sequester carbon and effectively remove some of the excess carbon dioxide from the environment.
I would have to say no, because then our cities, parks, etc would have many wasteful products that would cause hard to far more creatures, us, nature, etc but I do have lots of info that I think you will find quite helpful and enlightening:
http://ecowellness.multiply.com/ for excellent inspirational info within my blog to help not only our world and its creatures, but to also open peoples hearts and minds to many amazing wonders that life has to offer. I also have lots of info in my blog to help fuel peoples imaginations to many possibilities that can be found only in the minds eye.
Along with lots of environmental info, amazing environmental pictures and videos (These videos show the beauty of this world and what life can be like if people take the time to appreciate life’s true beauty).
Let us all strive for a greener/brighter future by helping to create a solid foundation for future generations to build upon, so we can hand them a beautiful world, filled with never ending awe and wonders!!
Where peoples differences and uniqueness are accepted, where we all live as one, helping one another so that we can all play our own mysteriously beautiful melodies in the never ending, awe inspiring, song of life
I truly have faith in humanity and believe that someday our lives and the world in which we live will truly be transformed for the better.
No. Littering will get you a ticket, a fine, and you will have to pick up litter as part of the punishment for littering.
Think before you open your mouth and prove you are dumb.
landfills rnt necessarily bad(modern).they help 2 reduce pollution n attack by vermin.
littering is just making every where smell and some what
look like a dump and that’s worse.landfills are disgusting but at least you don’t smell it all the time