By Richard V. Anthony, Richard Anthony Associates, San Diego, California USA May 02, 2002 For the last thirty years, my life has been garbage. I used to be an apologist for landfill but now I am into total recovery. When I first got into this field in 1970s I was a rabid recycler, I then spent 5 years with an engineering company and 20 years with County Departments of Public Works in California siting, permitting operating, mitigating and, in general, apologizing for landfills. Today, I am retired from government and I am a rabid recycler again, promoting zero waste programs. After all this time I have come to realize that landfills are stupid. I recently testified at a hearing on Environmental Impacts of Landfill on Urban communities organized by California State Senator Gloria Romero, Chair of the Select Committee on Urban Landfills. The following were questions the committee asked and my answers. What are the potential effects of land filling on ground water and surface water? Controlled burns on land were advancements to uncontrolled burning or dumping discards in the rivers, lakes or oceans. With the banning of activities that contributed to air and water pollution, land disposal of discards became the dominant disposal management technology of the seventies. Although most towns had a dumping area, the fires polluted the air, thus sanitary landfill with daily cover instead of daily fires became state of the art. From the sixties to the eighties what was disposed in Landfill was not regulated very well. Early State standards were prescriptive, they said that you cannot impact the environment, but there were no directions on what to do, only what couldn't happen. We got off to a bad start in California. Organics turn into water during decomposition and heat accelerates this decomposition. The evaporation of water in landfill theory is that day-to-day heat could remove more water than what was in the landfill. But in a covered landfill, the heat actually accelerates organic decomposition of vegetative debris and food waste. The result is that residual petrol-chemicals mix with water into a toxic brew. Add e waste, crush with a compactor, cover and leave the rest to time. Canyons are waterways carved out of centuries of drainage. Trench systems are in flat areas, above the ground water. Fifty and hundred year floods recreate these drainage systems. In the case of trenches, the water can find its natural level. The first and oldest sanitary landfill was used only for municipal waste, is today a superfund site because of ground water pollution. What is the composite
make up of leachate and why is it dangerous? What are the potential
effects of land filling on air quality? What are the dangers
of landfill methane emissions? Not looking at the long-term costs result in subsidizing wasting. If the eventual rail haul cost to Los Angeles is $80 a ton and the tip today in Los Angeles is $25, shouldn't the charge be $80, to fund the transition and infrastructure. If the price of wasting went up by 300 percent, shouldn't the recycle rate go up? Current inflexible collection contracts and franchises encourage landfill and wasting. Lack of training for public works leaders in the areas of resource conservation and recovery is another reason wasting continues. What can be done
to strengthen existing state landfill requirements and waste management
laws to protect the public health and safety and the environment? What are your thoughts
on the National Recycling Coalition's contention that "neither present
nor foreseeable technology, including bioreactors, provides the capability
to safely control discharges to groundwater or air emissions that threaten
human health and the environment whenever decomposable organic material
is discarded in the ground? What are the environmental
effects of alternatives to land filling? Zero waste is; Organizing collections for resource recovery, Mandating recycling, Composting organics and food dirty paper, Making manufacturers of durable goods responsible for designing recyclability into their products and buying recycled materials to make their products. Environmental Effects include; Resources for the future, Jobs from discards, Conservation of a forest, mineral and petrochemical reserves, more open space and natural habitat, less contamination of drinking water contaminated by disposal. And soil amendment to assist agriculture in revitalizing soil. Landfill is obsolete, polluting, a waste of valuable resources, and just plain stupid. www.RichardAnthonyAssociates.com ###
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