What you Should Know About Landfills - Chester 

Most towns and cities are likely to have a landfill for the disposal of their commercial and household rubbish. Because they are the easiest options to dispose of waste, they fill up rapidly and soon become large messy open spaces that are no good to the environment. 

It certainly is one way to contain the area in which waste is disposed of, and if the community and waste collectors use it correctly, it prevents waste from being dumped in unauthorized places. 

In this article we look at the benefits of a landfill, and consider some of the long term environmental problems associated with them 

Landfills – Problematic or Beneficial

Our responsibility as a waste management company is to always find ways to reduce the impact of garbage on the environment and the pollution that it could cause.

These are some of the negatives of landfills:

• The size allocated to a landfill is normally quite large. However, in time, the area becomes full, and cannot take any more garbage volume. It means that another landfill must be found.
• The approval of a new landfill site is tedious and difficult, as a wide range of stakeholders need to be consulted. Landfills have the potential to damage the natural habitat, and therefore their position needs careful consideration.
• Knowing what hazardous materials go into a landfill site causes communities to kick against their establishment in nearby places which could result in health related issues.

The benefits of a landfill:

• From a cost point of view, there is little doubt that they are the cheapest way of disposing of rubbish. Recently though, councils have increased costs in the form of tipping fees and taxes.

• Understandably, the use of the land for creation of sites to dispose of rubbish is far better than using the likes of the sea.

Landfills - The Effect on the Environment

For those of us that have been to a landfill site it’s one of those places you want to get out of as quickly as possible. It's dirty and smelly, filled with rotting waste. It would be great if all the waste were to rot away and degrade into the earth naturally. But this is far from the case. Many components don’t decompose and are pollutants that remain in the soil. There are a range of health, economic, and environmental factors that need to be considered now. 

• The mixture of garbage that is dumped into a landfill starts to degrade and becomes toxic. Resultant chemicals are given off, and they are then leaked into the ground. If they get into the groundwater, they become a real problem.
• Methane is a byproduct of the decomposition of organic material in landfills. This forms when the material is deprived of oxygen. Methane is a dangerous form of greenhouse gas many times stronger than carbon dioxide.  
• However, when this methane gas escapes into the environment, it clogs up our atmosphere, and prevents heat from escaping, causing global warming. This is a major contributor to the climate change we are seeing.
• The health of people living near landfills can be affected by the toxins that occur at landfills. The spread of these toxins is through their seepage into the surrounding air, soil, and water.
• The hazardous substances which are found in e-waste are major contributors to the toxicity of the landfill. These remain there in the form of mercury, arsenic, lead, and cadmium, all of which have long term effects on the pollution of the soil and threat to the groundwater.

Landfills – What Waste is Accepted

The following categories of waste can be dumped at landfills

• Household rubbish 
• Yard and garden waste
• Construction debris from demolitions and renovations. Typically, this waste may be used to cover the organic waste that is deposited there.
• All manner of appliances and furniture that is dumped from household cleanouts

Take note that items that can be recycled are required to be dumped in designated areas of the landfill for this purpose. These items are.

• Disused appliances (with no gases or refrigerants)
• Electronic waste that has been disposed of during office cleanouts and house cleanouts.
• Roofing materials and scrap metals removals 
• Old tyres

As all the above junk items have the potential to pollute the environment, they are categorized as recyclable. At Rubbish Removal Chester, it’s our responsibility to ensure that they are always recycled. 

In addition, they can be made into new manufactured goods containing recycled materials.

Landfills should not accept dangerously polluting materials that cause permanent damage to the environment such as:

• Medical waste and other hazardous materials 
• Asbestos
• Chemicals such as fuel, oils, cleaning agents, bleaches, pesticides, refrigerants, acids, and paints.
• Explosives
• Auto body waste
• Contaminated soil
• Any item which contains heavy metals like mercury, arsenic and cadmium.

Often, incineration methods are used to dispose of some of these to ensure that they do not pose a danger to the environment.

Landfills - Alternative Waste Disposal Procedures

There are alternatives to merely dumping into the landfill, and they include the following options:

• Decomposition by composting
• Remanufacturing or recycling into new products
• Finding and alternate use for them (reuse)

The benefits of the above process will help save the generation of excess greenhouse gases, and also help save energy. The former is achieved through composting and recycling, while remanufacturing or reuse is known to take pressure off our natural resource usage such as water, wood, and metals. 

Households that have a target of eliminating waste or aiming for zero waste are helping with some of these savings as well. However, this is not an easy thing to implement and waste prevention is likely to be an easier waste management option. Waste prevention requires a conscious effort to reduce consumption and wastage. 

As a leading waste management company in the Chester community, we provide a reliable and professional clearance service when cleanups are done. Give us a call when you need clearance services, and we will come out and give you great service. 

Please contact us today for a No Obligation quote for your home or office cleanup: 

Chester 01244 953100

Email: enquiries@rubbishremovalchester.co.uk

Website: https://www.rubbishremovalchester.co.uk/