What you Should Know About Landfills – Mechanicsburg
What you Should Know About Landfills and Rubbish Removal – Mechanicsburg
In the United States, 267.8 million tons of waste are generated each year, with 55 percent of this waste finding its way into landfills. Landfills are massive holes in the ground that are there to be filled with a mixture of household and commercial waste.
Landfills are an essential part of our waste management strategy, in that, they enable trash removal companies to dispose of our garbage cost effectively. Using landfills as the destination for the mountains of waste we generate ensures that our garbage is contained in one area and not dumped haphazardly in our environment.
Landfills – Problematic or Beneficial
Our trash has to go somewhere, so landfills are a necessity. It is important for our local authorities to keep the quantity and quality of junk that ends up in our landfills under control. Responsible trash removal companies need to follow the rules in order to make sure any pollution is kept under control.
The benefits of a landfill:
Landfills are still one of the cheapest ways of dealing with the tons of rubbish we generate even though tipping fees are rising.
Because landfills contain the trash, they are a much better alternative to waste management than sending tons of garbage either into our oceans or dumped randomly anywhere.
Some of the problems of landfills:
Landfills will eventually run out of space, but because of their nature, it is not an easy process to start a new one. Landfills cause degradation of the environment and local regulations designed to protect our environment make it difficult to establish a new one.
There is generally a huge public objection to a landfill starting anywhere nearby, because of the danger posed to humans and the environment, by the types of waste disposed of in them. This is a classic case of NIMBY (not in my backyard).
Landfills – Their Effect on the Environment
The problem with landfills goes further than the fact that they are not a pretty sight. The purpose of a landfill is to contain trash until it disintegrates and eventually disappears. This is fine for garbage that decomposes fast, but unfortunately most of the garbage that finds its way into our landfills decomposes very slowly, and sometimes doesn’t decompose at all. This causes the economic, health, and environmental problems that landfills pose.
As this garbage consisting of mixed materials decomposes, it forms toxic chemicals which mix together and form leachate. This leachate is a toxic mix that contaminates groundwater and also the surrounding soil.
The organic materials in a landfill should decompose quickly and harmlessly, but because they are deprived of oxygen, they release a gas called methane gas. This methane gas released in this anaerobic process is a greenhouse gas that is 28x more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Methane gas from landfills (and other sources) forms a layer in the atmosphere that acts like a blanket keeping the heat the earth generates, trapped. This is known as the greenhouse effect and is one of the main contributors to global warming which has had such negative effects on global weather conditions.
The leachate poisons the groundwater, the soil, and air surrounding the landfill, and negatively impacts the lives of people living near landfills.
The chemicals leached from e-waste that find their way into landfills include arsenic, lead, cadmium, and other harmful chemicals. Mercury which is a particularly toxic chemical coming from discarded fluorescent lights and other sources, is also found in our landfills.
Landfills – What Waste is Accepted
The following types of waste are accepted by landfills:
Household trash from house cleanouts
Yard waste
Construction, demolition, and renovation waste including concrete and tarmac. This type of waste is sometimes used as a layer over the top of organic waste.
Broken furniture and other items from home cleanouts
The following are accepted for recycling or must be dumped in special areas of the landfill.
Old appliances (without refrigerants and other gases)
Electronic waste from office cleanouts or home cleanouts.
Roofing and metal scraps
Old tires
The trash mentioned directly above should ideally be recycled as these items contain materials that are toxic to the environment. Junk Removal Mechanicsburg recycle your trash to keep as much as possible out of our landfills. These items contain materials that can be repurposed and reused in the manufacturing business, thus saving on using raw materials.
The following materials are toxic and should not find their way into landfills.
Hazardous waste including medical waste
Asbestos
Chemicals including fuels, oils, cleaners, bleach, pesticides, refrigerants, acids, and paints.
Explosives
Auto body waste
Contaminated soil
Anything containing heavy metals such as mercury.
These toxic materials must be disposed of using specialized processes to ensure that they pose no danger to our environment. It is essential that none of these find their way into our air, water, or soil, and ultimately into our fresh food chain.
Landfills – Alternative Waste, Rubbish Removal & Disposal Procedures in Mechanicsburg
Some of the ways to reduce the amount of trash reaching our landfills could be achieved by encouraging the following:
Recycling
Composing
Reusing
The prevention of generating waste by reducing our consumption is an attainable goal in our waste management, even if completely eliminating waste or achieving zero waste may seem unattainable.
Recycling, composting our organic material waste, and reusing as much as possible, will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we are responsible for. As we live a cleaner, greener life, we will become part of the solution to global warming instead of part of the problem.
Junk Removal Mechanicsburg PA offers rubbish removal services in the Mechanicsburg area. We are your local junk haulers, licensed by the local authorities, and we promise to dispose of your waste in a responsible manner. We recycle what we can, thus diverting as much trash as possible from the landfill. We are committed to preserving our environment as much as you are.
We can remove your unwanted household or office junk after hours or on a weekend, and we even offer same day junk removal if that suits you.
Please contact us at enquiries@junkremovalmechanicsburg.com and we look forward to giving you a free, no obligation quote for any trash you need to dispose of. We look forward to your call today at 717 988 0997.
www.junkremovalmechanicsburg.com