EcoVille MANITOBA - Disposal Sites

The major problem associated with landfills is trying to keep the trash from coming in contact with the environment. The purpose of the bottom liner is to prevent the garbage from coming into contact with the groundwater. However, there is a chance that the liners could leak and contaminate groundwater.

Trash is compacted in landfills to maximize the garbage that they can hold but many current landfills are getting full.

Another problem is that the landfill must remain dry to minimize the amount of leachate that is generated from the landfill. Leachate is the term for rainwater that becomes contaminated with pollutants as it rains on and seeps through all the rubbish in a landfill. If leachate is not contained within a landfill liner, it can contaminate aquifers and waterways which we use! Landfills usually have storm drainage systems to allow leachate to drain from the system into a contained collection pond. Leachate that escapes could contaminate the surrounding environment.

Methane gas is also a problem at landfills. Landfills are airtight and so the waste breaks down anaerobically (in the absence of oxygen). One of the by-products of this decomposition is methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases contribute to climate change.

When a landfill is full, it is covered with a cap and then covered with soil. Even once a landfill is closed there is still an environmental risk. Leachate can still leak out of a closed landfill.

And now for the dirty part of this report, let's take a few minutes and explain how a landfill works and identify some of the problems that are associated with landfills. To find out location and contact information for your local landfill, please visit the Ecoville Town Hall.

In order to understand some of the problems that can occur with a landfill, it is important to know how a landfill is set-up (Figure 1), so, picture a cross-section of a landfill.

Figure 1 - This is a cross section of a municipal solid waste landfill. The arrows show the flow of the leachate. Figure available at: HowStuffWorks.