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Landfills are the primary method of waste disposal in many parts of the world, including United States and Canada.Bioreactor landfills are expected to reduce the amount of and costs associated with management of leachate, to increase the rate of production of methane (natural gas) for commercial purposes and reduce the amount of land required for land-fills.
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 .
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]
America’s landfills—and the environmental havoc they create—are sizable. There are roughly 1,200 landfills currently in operation, and on average, each one takes up about 600 acres of land ...
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.
There are different designs for landfills used for municipal solid waste or household waste, construction & demolition waste, and hazardous waste. According to an EPA report, the number of municipal solid waste landfills has gone down from 7924 in 1988 to 1754 in 2006. There were close to 1900 construction & demolition landfills in 1994. [6] [21]
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 .
Landfill bans make it illegal to dispose of certain items in a landfill. Most often these items include yard waste, oil, and recyclables easily collected in curbside recycling programs. States with landfill bans of recyclables include Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Michigan, [4] and North Carolina. [5] Other states focus on recycling goals.