Do not pollute the land where you are:
Numbers 35:33
The majority of our rubbish ends up on landfill
When you put your rubbish into a black bin bag to go to landfill, the rubbish rots inside the bag, and when it bursts , it releases methane
By lining your bin with newspaper or a brown paper bag, once the food waste goes onto the landfill it can biodegrade
So try to do these two actions – recycle all your plastic and line your bin which is going to landfill with paper not plastic!
Here is a video to help you line your bin!
The world keeps generating more and more rubbish. We live in a throw-away society and we’re paying the price; we don’t know what to do with all our waste.
. Most rubbish ends up in landfills. Landfill sites currently contain approximately 40% of the world’s waste and that the 50 largest landfill sites impact the daily lives of 64 million people — equivalent to the entire population of France.
How does landfill work?
A landfill site is a location that has been prepared for the purpose of dumping waste, rubbish or debris. Before the land is used to store waste, diggers are used to give it a suitable shape and it is covered with an artificial water-resistant coating to prevent the rubbish from contaminating the soil. The law states that landfill sites must be located away from inhabited areas, as well as areas used for farming or drinking water.
Waste is crushed and compacted—so it occupies as little space as possible—then transported in lorries to outdoor landfill sites, where it is dumped and buried under layers of soil to decompose.
But the truth is that much of this waste take years to decompose due to the conditions of the landfill sites—where there is little oxygen and moisture—and the characteristics of the materials.
Why are landfill sites so harmful to the environment?
Burying waste in the ground has an impact on our environment, even when done in a controlled manner. The main problems that municipal landfill sites generate for the environment are detailed below.
1. Landfill are one of the causes of climate change
Landfill sites are partially responsible for global warming as they generate and release biogas into the atmosphere. Biogas is a mixture formed primarily of methane gas (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), two of the gases that cause climate change and an increase in the planet’s temperature. Landfill sites will account for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
2. They can cause fires or explosions
Sometimes methane produced by waste from landfill sites can cause explosions and fires. This downside is more common than meets the eye, because the fires that occur are not regular fires with flames, but fires that occur inside the landfill. Dioxin emissions from these spontaneous uncontrolled fires are also very harmful to the environment, not to mention the damaging effects they have on aquifers, whose waterproofing membranes are affected by the fire.
3. They can contaminate soil and water
Landfill sites are often responsible for the contamination of soil and groundwater, as the contaminating materials (such as heavy materials like lead and mercury) that the stored waste may contain can spread to the soil and water near the plant.
4. Landfills alter the fauna
Landfill sites have particularly negative effects on bird migration. Some birds feed from landfill sites , inevitably ingesting plastic, aluminium, gypsum and other materials that are common among waste, which can even prove fatal.
5. Landfills reduce the value of the surrounding areas
The bad smells that emanate from landfill sites cannot be effectively controlled and, almost inevitably, reach nearby populations. Property prices are reduced in areas located near to these waste stores, which further perpetuates the devaluation of disadvantaged areas.