A landfill site is a place where solid waste is deposited. Usually a hole in the ground.
What happens at a landfill site?
Household waste is collected from your wheeled bin and tipped into the back of a refuse collection vehicle. When this vehicle is full of rubbish it drives to the nearest landfill site. It drives onto the weighbridge where the whole of the vehicle is weighed. From this weight the known weight of the empty vehicle is subtracted and a ticket showing the weight of the rubbish is produced.The vehicle then drives along to the tipping face where the driver ejects the load of refuse onto the ground.
A compactor (large tractor with spikes on its wheels) pushes the waste into position and rolls over it to compact it into the ground. Once a layer of about 2 metres has been deposited, a layer of soil and clay is then tipped on top of the compacted rubbish to seal it to the site. This helps to stop litter being blown away from the site.
What happens to the waste then?
Over time the organic waste such as food and paper will begin to break down (biodegrade). This rotting process produces a substance called leachate and also gives off landfill gas (methane and carbon dioxide). The gas and leachate must be monitored and controlled to prevent environmental damage and to stop the gas exploding.
The waste that cannot decompose (non-biodegradable) such as metals and plastics will remain in the landfill site forever.
The Cost of Disposal
We are very quickly running out of landfill space so the Government is making this form of disposal more and more expensive in order to try and encourage us to find alternative methods of disposal and to encourage recycling.
Also in sending waste to landfill we are wasting valuable resources. Organic material could be made into compost. Glass can be reused or recycled into new glass products. Old clothes and furniture could be given to charities for reuse. There are endless possibilities.