‘Anatomy’ of Landfill- Open Dumping Ground

In my article last week, I had written about the basic composition of garbage that piles up on a dumping ground in hundreds and thousands of tons. If it was only plastic waste, there wouldn’t be much problem. If, it was only the waste papers, cardboards and tetra packs, there wouldn’t be much problem. If, it was only clothing or textile material, there wouldn’t be much problem. If, it was only the electrical and electronic waste, there wouldn’t be much problem. If, it was only the kitchen waste, there wouldn’t be much problem.

So the problem, not just one..but many problems leading to NIMBY mentality of the people is because of such deadly mixture of the waste materials that get accumulated on a dumping ground. There are multiple reasons for people protesting and refusing to have a dumping ground in the vicinity of their residences. While having an open dumping ground is financially and technically much more advantageous for the urban local bodies, it is extremely hazardous for the environment and poses threat to health as well.

Let’s see now how it is advantageous to the urban local bodies to have open dumping ground. First, there is no need to ‘prepare’ the site for accommodating the waste material. It gets dumped as it is brought by those trucks or compacters to the site. Secondly, there is no need to have a system for ‘compaction’ of the waste. In fact, compaction is essential process to minimize the volume of waste such that more waste can be accommodated in relatively smaller space. But it requires additional machinery and, of course, additional costs. Next there is no provision for management of the ‘leachate’. Oh! Come on. What is this stuff? Hold on very easy to understand.

As the waste on such open dumping ground is heterogenous, many entities in this huge pile or heap react with each other and in the process, generate a deadly, hazardous toxic liquid, ‘LEACHATE’.

Being liquidish, leachate slowly runs down and accumulates at the bottom of the garbage pile, and further sips or percolates down in the soil. This results in severe loss of soil biodiversity. Extremely useful organisms like soil bacteria, earthworms and many other cannot tolerate the toxicants present in this leachate. This ultimately results in contamination and degradation of the soil.

Many good quality, fertile soils have been severely degraded because of this. Such soil is practically ‘dead’ and is rendered useless for the growth of any vegetation whatsoever. Ok. Soil is lost. What next? Well, when it rains, this leachate further flows down below the soil and eventually enters the underground aquifers thereby polluting the groundwater which is such a precious natural resource on which we, the humans are dependent. Understood? Furthermore, such chemical reactions also generate toxic and foul smelling gases which spread easily through the air adding to the air pollution. More about this in the next article.

(The author is an environment specialist. Views personal.)