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I used to work designing landfills and they're not a bad choice. Right now many landfills in the us are the worlds largest bags. They definitely are now bett
by acomjean 5y ago
I used to work designing landfills and they're not a bad choice. Right now many landfills in the us are the worlds largest bags. They definitely are now better engineered so that toxic substances have less chance of leaching into the ground.
They roll out large sheets of plastic and weld them together. Some states (NY) require dual liners (bags in a bag) and piping to collect the liquid that comes out at the bottom "(leachate). When they put the plastic top on holes are made to allow waste gas to escape. Landfills tend to be dry and nothing rots in them.
I think they work well, but its better to reduce the waste going into them. I'm assuming many places in the world aren't handling the trash like this leading to issues with groundwater contamination and other problems.
- tommiegannert 5y agoHow is the leachate treated? That must be a mix of lots of (unknown) bad stuff. Isn't the main problem that landfills aren't sustainable? Burning is bad for CO2 in the atomsphere, but it frees up de-bonds matter so they can be taken up again.
- acomjean 5y agoI mean landfills are burying useful matter. Stuff doesn't really rot it just sits there. I'm not sure how the leachate was treated. At the end of the day the cap was supposed to keep the water out, so when closed there wouldn't be much more leachate.
- olau 5y agoWhat's the lifetime of that plastic liner? It will break down eventually, no?
- acomjean 5y agoThe ones we specified were high quality HDPE plastic placed on top of a bentonite mat or 1 foot of clay (a low water permiable material). I’m guessing it would last a long long time. Acording to this study 400 years. https://deq.mt.gov/files/Land/Hardrock/Documents/TintinaMines/2016%20September%20Revision/App%20K/App%20K-3%20Life%20Expectancy%20of%20HDPE%20Geomembrane%20Lining%20Systems.pdf?ver=2016-09-19-155427-510(pdf) https://deq.mt.gov/files/Land/Hardrock/Documents/TintinaMine...