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Landfills are the oldest known method of waste disposal. [3] [4] Waste is buried in large dug out pits (unless naturally occurring locations are available) and covered.. Bacteria and archaea decompose the waste over several decades producing several by-products of importance, including methane gas (natural gas), leachate, and volatile organic compounds (such as hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S), N 2 O 2,
A landfill [a] is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s.
Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane , with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide .
Leachate from a landfill varies widely in composition depending on the age of the landfill and the type of waste that it contains. [1] [2] It usually contains both dissolved and suspended material. The generation of leachate is caused principally by precipitation percolating through waste deposited in a
Decomposing waste in these landfills produces landfill gas, which is a mixture of about half methane and half carbon dioxide. Landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions in the United States, with municipal solid waste landfills representing 95 percent of this fraction. [15] [16]
Class Two landfills can accept waste that tests at less than 10 times the maximum contaminant levels. Any waste that can decay must be removed from Class Two landfills within 72 hours.
One of the more fruitful fields of work is food waste—when deposited in landfills, food waste produces the greenhouse gas methane and other toxic compounds that can be dangerous to humans and local ecosystems. [11] Landfill gas utilization and municipal composting can capture and use the organic nutrients. [11]
Landfills take up a lot of land and pose environmental risks. Some landfill sites are used for waste management purposes, such as temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or for various stages of processing waste material, such as sorting, treatment, or recycling.