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> You know where landfill ends up in when not properly sealed? So then don't do that? And realistically, are landfills in the US and Europe leaking or not?
by ars 7y ago
> You know where landfill ends up in when not properly sealed?
So then don't do that?
And realistically, are landfills in the US and Europe leaking or not?
- AstralStorm 7y agoWater runoff and sludge from landfills is treated, however only final very time consuming steps of biological sedimentation and treatment can remove most of them. Or very fine reverse osmosis or treatment with micron level filters, very energy intensive. So they do tend to end up in clean drinking water. There are many sources and no norms. Sometimes even metals bordering on norms can be detected near landfills. Sample efficiency ranges: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043135418310686 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00431... I had a link with site in Sweden barely keeping norms for lead and cobalt... due to organic decomposition and incomplete runoff collection. Bad enough that I wouldn't build a well within some 10 km radius. Read up on what happens to all this thing called leachate. This is a main reason why European Commission wants the landfills to remain as exception.
- jfeser 7y ago> And realistically, are landfills in the US and Europe leaking or not? Yes, they are. See https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-040-03/ https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-040-03/. A key quote: > The USEPA has concluded that all landfills eventually will leak into the environment We can minimize the amount of material that leaks, but it seems that all landfills will eventually leak at least some of their contents.
- triceratops 7y agoLandfills are funded by the public. Public money has to be spent to fix problems caused by private companies. Is that not a problem?