All should be pleased that Waco Mayor Kyle Deaver and the city of Waco are now analyzing alternative sites for a new city landfill, as time is fast running out for such old-waste technology. A better long-term solution is adopting modern technology that extends the life of landfills through greater recycling and accelerated on-site biologic decomposition. In fact, we still have time to make the right choice to save taxpayer money and avoid future groundwater pollution.
Solid waste (garbage) is a by-product of industrialization and our consumer society. Only a few generations ago, 90 percent of the U.S. population lived on farms. Solid waste that did not biodegrade on the farm might have consisted of broken glass or pottery. But there were no plastic bags, cardboard or aluminum cans. Most food waste was fed to livestock.
All has changed. Plastic of various kinds and other inert materials can amount to 20 percent of our garbage. The rest can be composted or recycled but often is not. The total volume of waste has changed radically and, on average, Americans generate seven pounds of solid waste per person per day. Almost all Americans dispose of their waste through a government or commercial source.
Various methods of managing solid waste exist. Waste-management techniques vary by country and, in the United States, by state. Methods include incineration, dumping in the ocean, removing all recyclables, processing green waste into compost, requiring merchants to take back all packaging (Germany) and various ways of storing in the earth. The latter is known as landfilling and is often a source of great controversy when a new one is proposed.
Early sanitary landfills evolved from open dumps into wet 鈥渂ioreactor鈥� or 鈥渄ry-tomb鈥� technologies. The United States is the only country to choose dry-tomb landfills almost exclusively. The dry-tomb approach generally takes an open area. Technicians create a liner of plastic and impervious compacted clay. Garbage is dumped over that lined area each day, then covered with a few inches of soil or green waste material. The liner is supposed to isolate the untreated garbage from the groundwater. Over the decades of a landfill鈥檚 life, technicians collect and manage the leachate (garbage juice) generated by the dry tomb.
Several deficiencies exist with dry-tomb landfills, essentially technology of the 1970s. Think of how far automobiles, telephones and computers have progressed the past 40 years. Sadly, dry-tomb landfills in most of our nation have not progressed generally.
The Environmental Protection Agency has requirements for more robust leachate management and gas collection, but that鈥檚 often a Band-aid. In many cases, old landfills are time bombs because eventually liners fail, allowing leachate to seep into groundwater, requiring costly excavation and remediation. Thus, all landfills require decades of environmental monitoring for both water and air emissions. (Flammable methane gas is created as landfills decay, which has caused explosions at poorly managed sites.)
Imagine ongoing costs for decades of collecting and testing leachate water and monitoring gas-collection systems. Also, because it鈥檚 a 鈥渄ry tomb,鈥� the decomposition process and final waste stabilization may be lengthened indefinitely. This all requires tax dollars.
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