D18 Explain the short-and long-term impacts of landfills and incineration of waste materials on the quality of the environment.

Learning Targets I can explain how a sanitary landfill is constructed. I can explain the short term environmental effects of a sanitary landfill. I can explain the long term environmental effects of a sanitary landfill.

Sanitary Landfills What comes to mind when your hear the words “sanitary landfill”?

How many landfills are in the US? 3,091 active sanitary landfills in the U.S.

What is the difference between the 2 pictures?

Anatomy of a Sanitary Landfill Modern sanitary landfills are carefully engineered structures designed to isolate garbage from nearby water, soil, wildlife, and people.

How is a Sanitary Landfill Constructed? A huge hole is dug out of the ground The walls are sealed with layers of clay and coated with plastic to prevent groundwater contamination from wastewater that accumulates.

The Liner Note the overlapping seams!

Today's landfills are designed to stay dry inside, except for liquids that ooze from some garbage, and rainwater that trickles through. As water trickles through a landfill, it dissolves chemicals and other particles. What is the name of the resultant liquid? Leachate

What is done with the Leachate? 3) The contained leachate is run through pipes to above-ground storage tanks and hauled for treatment and disposal at a large regional wastewater treatment plant.

What is next? 4) Garbage trucks dump garbage 5) Large machines compact the garbage

What happens next? 6) Garbage covered daily Why?

Cross-Section of a Landfill

What happens when a landfill is full? 7) Methane gas recovery system installed 8) Landfill covered with dirt 9) Vegetation planted

The Capping of a FULL Landfill Hartford Landfill

So...landfill garbage degrades, right? Not really. Landfills are mostly anaerobic. Without the oxygen and water needed to break down organic materials, all garbage decays very slowly in a landfill. This means our garbage will probably be around for a very long time.

40 Yr-old Newspaper found in Landfill

Even food does NOT degrade

Amount of Trash Thrown in Landfills (by mass)

Food Waste Glass Metal Can be composted. Glass was one of the first to be recycled and continues to lead all others in % recycled. It is the easiest recycled material to use and is the most cost efficient. Metal Recycling aluminum cans, metal recycling locations, and recycling bins at town dumping stations.

Plastics Paper & Cardboard Recycle paper and cardboard. Yard Waste “Green Waste” (leaves, twigs, Christmas trees) can be shredded and used as mulch or composted. Plastics Plastics can take between 200-400 years to degrade. Use the recycling bin for all your plastics 1-7

Landfill Issues 1. Leakage through plastic membrane 2. Water contamination from leachate 3. Air Emissions (methane & other gases) 4. Toxins in landfills 5. Hazardous waste in landfills 6. Location of old landfills needing remediation close to large bodies of water 7. Landfill cover usually is ash from incinerators, not dirt 8. Monitoring of closed landfills will not be kept up

What will be Your future?

Learning Target Checkpoint How is a sanitary landfill constructed? What are the short term environmental effects of a sanitary landfill? What are the long term environmental effects of a sanitary landfill?