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They're called landfills because of the method used to dispose the garbage: digging out a trench, covering the garbage with dirt, and compacting it to prevent r

They're called landfills because of the method used to dispose the garbage: digging out a trench, covering the garbage with dirt, and compacting it to prevent rodents [1]. The land is literally "filled in" with garbage. Before that trash was either incinerated, which caused lots of air pollution, or just dumped in large piles that created all kinds of sanitation issues, especially in urban areas. As unsavory as it is to think about, landfills were an actual innovation in waste disposal that exploded in the post war boom, not just a euphemism for a dump. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno_Municipal_Sanitary_Landfill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno_Municipal_Sanitary_Land...

smcl 3y ago
It's still incinerated plenty of places, iirc Japan does it and I know that at least some of it here is: https://www.teplarny.cz/cs/spolecenska-odpovednost https://www.teplarny.cz/cs/spolecenska-odpovednost > Využíváme spalování odpadu. V létě je spalovna hlavním zdrojem teplé vody pro město. Vyrábíme současně elektřinu. ~= "We are using incinerated waste. In summer the incinerator is the main source of hot water for the city. At the same time we're producing electricity." They do have a couple of charging ports at the teplárny near me, but I don't know how much electricity they produce.
- akiselev 3y ago
  Yeah modern incineration is a totally different beast with flue gas cleaning systems [1]. Before wet scrubbers [2] and some other clean air technology reached mass production - largely in the 70s iirc, because of EPA & California Air Resources Board pressure on coal power plants - incineration was a much dirtier way of disposing of trash. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incineration#Flue-gas_cleaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incineration#Flue-gas_cleaning [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_scrubber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_scrubber

smcl 3y ago

It's still incinerated plenty of places, iirc Japan does it and I know that at least some of it here is: https://www.teplarny.cz/cs/spolecenska-odpovednost https://www.teplarny.cz/cs/spolecenska-odpovednost > Využíváme spalování odpadu. V létě je spalovna hlavním zdrojem teplé vody pro město. Vyrábíme současně elektřinu. ~= "We are using incinerated waste. In summer the incinerator is the main source of hot water for the city. At the same time we're producing electricity." They do have a couple of charging ports at the teplárny near me, but I don't know how much electricity they produce.

akiselev 3y ago
Yeah modern incineration is a totally different beast with flue gas cleaning systems [1]. Before wet scrubbers [2] and some other clean air technology reached mass production - largely in the 70s iirc, because of EPA & California Air Resources Board pressure on coal power plants - incineration was a much dirtier way of disposing of trash. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incineration#Flue-gas_cleaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incineration#Flue-gas_cleaning [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_scrubber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_scrubber