Diva stood at my cubicle opening last week and said, somehow appropriate to the conversation, "Well, I'm good. I recycle."
I scoffed. "You might as well not bother."
"But it's better than putting it into the landfill. I mean, it doesn't rot in the landfill like other stuff, doesn't it?"
Okay. As I see it, this is where she asked a question. And I felt duty-bound to answer it.
"Landfills today and since then 1980s are and have been capped. This means that once the supposedly lined pit - lined to catch the grey goo that seeps down to the bottom - has been filled, when the mountain of garbage is up to the tip-top, the waste management company comes back, puts methane - methane! - exhaust pipes in the landfill, covers it with dirt, then grass, then builds parks or schools on top of it."
Diva looked at me, aghast. "But it's supposed to rot!"
"It doesn't because it's an anaerobic environment. For something to rot, it has to have contact with the air and none of this stuff does. It's in plastic bags from our houses or the grocery stores plus the waste management company crushes layers upon layers of stuff on top of each other. There are scientists who've done research on landfills and they've found intact packages of chicken from 1977 and newspapers from 1965 that you can still read."
And don't get me started about the plastic in the oceans.
Diva looked at me. Then, slowly, she walked away.
I don't blame her. Why should a technical writer for a small company know so much about garbology? And if she does, why should she tell anyone?
Because she asked, that's why.
And I wonder why I have so few friends...
3 comments:
Actually, it does still decompose. That's the source of the methane, the decomposition of organics.
It can still possibly leak, although with liners and leachate collection systems, the risk is minimal. Still most States only require a 20 year post closure care standard, so any could become a problem decades down the road.
Re-cycling helps save landfill volume. It's still a good idea, but not necessarily an economically justifiable one.
My ex-fireman friend one had to put out landfill fires in Earth City and Maryland Heights MO. He would tell stories about methane fires and firey cockroaches.
Some of the older ones that didn't have gas collection systems have actually blown their top!
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