Tracking Landfills Through Time
The Role of Social and Governmental Transformations in the Development of Landfills.
It all began in Athens, 500 B.C., when garbage had to be disposed approximately 2 kilometers away from the boundaries of the city. Managing this system was not difficult as each household was responsible of disposing their own wastes in the designated site. However, the idea of having a “collection service” was established in 27 B.C, during the period of the Roman Empire.
Households would toss their garbage in the street and then they would be taken to the designated site by the collection facility. After the fall of the Roman Empire, there was no organized method of garbage disposal, as long as it was out of sight.
This approach functioned until the population and their volume of waste started to increase. Municipal solid wastes where a concern due to the lack of an efficient disposal system and sanitation. In 1832, furious English citizens complained about the streets as they were filled with rubbish that was rotting and contaminating the air. The publics’ frustration regarding this issue was visible in various countries, which led to the issue to be addressed.
The rise of different disease in various areas resulted in the establishment of various disposal methods. The concept of ‘solid waste management’ emerged in the United States during 1890s in response to the sanitation problems associated with rapid industrialization and urbanization in the second half of the nineteenth century. By 1915, 89% of major American cities had incorporated a garbage collection system that includes landfilling, water dumping, incinerators, etc. During 1880 till 1930, land dumping was most common disposal method primarily due to its simplicity, low-cost, and lack of expensive technology.
Landfills are a very convenient method of disposal in the moment; however, the hazards that came along with it are exposed with time. The manifestation of pests, windblown litter, fires, odors, and the fact that these landfills were sited near growing urban areas and their water supplies are some of the undesirable outcomes. The discomfort and inconvenience experienced by the public pushed forward the need for having an ‘engineered method’ of disposing wastes.
Engineered landfills include incorporating particular features to reduce the harms of landfills. Protective covers are a key element of the overall design as it isolates the interior of the landfill from the infiltration of water, preventing the generation of leachate (liquid that passes through a landfill and extracts dissolvable material, making it highly toxic). Bottom liners considered the most important feature as it contains any leachate produced stops it from leaking and contaminating the groundwater. In 1991, the EPA required any new municipal landfills to have at least six different layers of protection between the garbage and the groundwater.
This approach solved current problems yet did not improve long-term sanitation issues. In 1960, the U.S. federal Bureau of Solid Waste Management stated that 94% of all land disposal operations were inadequate in terms of air, water, and land pollution. Other features that were added included collecting the leachate and landfill gases.
In 1976, the U.S. Congress passed a very important act, the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act (RCRA), set certain limitations as it governed the disposal of solid and hazardous wastes. The RCRA required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set standards for landfills which would be determined after affects on health or the environment. States on the other hand were required to catalog their open dumps and either bring them up to standard or shut them down. As a result of this act, landfills in the United States dropped from 20,000 [1979] to 5,300 [1993]. However, in 1990, the EPA Environmental Protection Agency estimated that more than 75% of the landfills in the nation were polluting groundwater’s with leachate.
In 1976, a study, “Inventory of black carbon emission from China” by Wang, showed methane to be a strong greenhouse gas that interferes with the ozone chemistry, which contributes to lower atmosphere ozone. This finding proved that global warming is a problem, which encompasses a number of elements, and not just carbon dioxide, recognizing it as a climate change problem.
Thus, landfills greatly contribute to global warming as landfill gas includes a combination of more than seven gases, with methane and carbon dioxide being produced in paramount quantities. Both carbon dioxide and methane are considered primary greenhouse gases.
The production of these gases started when the landfills where established. During the time landfills where trying to be controlled geographically, spatially and totally, the garbage have been decomposing primarily producing leachate and waste gas.
The Clean Air Act, one of the most important environment laws in the U. S., lead to modifications in the rules and regulations of establishments related to the air in one way or another, particularly after the 1990 amendments. The Clean Air Act is a federal law, originally passed in 1973, protects human health and the environments well being from the harms of air pollution. The amendments really aimed to improve the air quality, protect the ozone layer, and reduce toxic pollutants.
Before the Clean Air Act was passed, 71% of the municipal solid wastes in the U. S. were landfilled without landfill gas control. In 1996, New Source Performance Standards and Emission Guidelines required landfills, which produce more than 2.5 million tons of wastes to control landfill gas and collect it.
In 1997, 56% of the waste that was landfilled was going to approximately 1200 sites with liners, leachate collection, and control. Some of these sites, primarily the larger ones, also have landfill gas control. Yet, even with the additions in efforts of improving the landfills quality, their wastes are still of concern. In 1999, approximately 90% of greenhouse gases from the waste sector in the United States is methane that has been released by landfills. According to Steve Hamburg, Environmental Defense Fund Chief Scientist, “emitting just a little bit of methane, mankind is greatly accelerating the rate of climate change”.
The EPA states that today’s landfills are modern “sanitary landfills in response to state and federal requirements for liners, leachate collection and treatment, and prevention of land- fill gas explosions”. However, according to Dr. Peter Bower, former mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey, “landfills right now certainly do contribute to air pollution. Even the modern engineered landfills are going to eventually leak — it is just a matter of time until these things fail”.
The evolution of garbage throughout the years also plays a very important role in the creation of landfills as products became more sophisticated and had less value. Previously, reusing belongings was part of the way people lived. Marianne Peters, a freelance writer, believes that’s “because most people did not own a lot, everything had value — even grease. It was a lubricant, a poultice, and a flavoring”.
Unfortunately, that changed in the early twentieth century with the growth of the economy and the labor field, as people preferred convenience and disposability. According to Peters, “we lost our connection with craftspeople and raw materials”. All these new technologies and products needed to be disposed, as they were not designed to be reused.
Currently, 1900 landfills exists nationwide, and according to Dr. Bower “It will be a long time before landfills wont be needed, because there will always be something that you can not burn or reuse in a certain way. So until the waste stream is designed so that it does not leave any waste, we are going to need the landfills”. That is accurate; however, we have seen more awareness about the importance and need of recycling, reusing, and reducing.
